


Escape! (Post-Tfp)

by Darst-Llah (Darst002)



Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers: Prime
Genre: Adventure, Angst, Gen, General fiction, Swearing, fan fiction
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-08-05
Updated: 2017-02-17
Packaged: 2018-01-01 11:26:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 25
Words: 28,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1044273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Darst002/pseuds/Darst-Llah
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Soundwave in Shadowzone. What will he do to get out?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Post-Deadlock.  
> Soundwave in the Shadowzone.  
> He will escape... whatever it takes!
> 
> Deadlock left me really really sad. And I want to set things right. And setting things right means that Soundwave cannot be condemned to eternal wandering through the barren shadowzone! No, Hasbro! He's not the kind of 'Con!

Soundless.  
That was what creeped him out.

Whatever it was where he was now it was completely void of sounds other than those he produced himself. This cosmic silence around him was... hell.  
Most of his long existence Soundwave had spent watching and listening others talk, transmit, act - live! ... and die.

He cruelly replayed the scene of his one true master's death at a hand of some lowly autobot - not even a Prime! - and made himself look it through as it unfolded before his optics.  
Rage shook through Soundwave circuits as he watched his lord's lifeless cask slide off the deck and begin its deceptively slow descend. He surged after it, transforming on the way and quickly caught up with it, but Megatron slipped through his wings without even slowing down.

The steel plates were red-hot from the friction with the athmosphere, but Soundwave remained cold and couldn't perceive the heat.

Eleven more times did the spy catch up with his master's corpse, transformed and tried to stop its fall. Eleven more times he failed. As Megatron's chassis collided with the planetary surface, Soundwave reached him the last time. The explosion didn't hurt them. Megatron could feel pain no more, and Soundwave was _elsewhere_.

He was unaware how much time he had spent in the crater, talking to his fallen comrade. He stopped recording and he wasn't sure his internal clock was correct anymore.

When he looked up, Nemesis was already gone. The navy con was still seething rage.

How dared he?! How dared he die?! Megatron of all cons! Killed off like some nonsense eradicon, nearly stabbed in the back. With an oversized knife that wasn't even ACTIVE!  
Rage made Soundwave erupt in a sonic burst, ripping apart the blasted silence of this netherworld. There wasn't even an echo.

He calmed down eventually. He had to. Laserbeak pinged him - she was alright it seemed, though it had taken her time to recover from the shock of bridging here. If he lost it, she would panic. Logically, he had to calm down.  
He would address this... predicament... like a sane and sound 'con he was.  
Soundwave turned his back to Megatron's cask and sat down for some probability calculations.  
/Possibility 1. I have perished in the bridges cross-stream and this... horror is my post-mortem hallucination./  
Laserbeake pinged him ironically.  
/ Yes, you are right. We would hardly be together as you surely would join the Allspark, Laserbeak. However, you may be just another hallucination of mine/

A slight power shock the drone passed him ensured no hallucination was taking place  
/...or I am too deep into it for the matter of reality to be of significance./

Soundwave turned to look at Megatron. The warlord was as lifeless as few clicks ago.

/Possibility 2. I fell victim to a fellow prank, I may be hooked up to the neuro-cortical patch right now, with all of them laughing at my turmoil./  
Laserbeak pinged him sceptically.  
"You should have done a better job with environment modelling! This here is too pristine to be true!" - he yelled.

Laserbeak pinged him sympathetically.  
/I am not in denial, Laserbeak. There is nothing to deny/

Laserbeak's silence was screaming.

/Possibility 3. The crossing streams shifted my phase. And I have no phase shifter to shift it back. And there is no adaptable control... Except, I still would be visible, if that had been the case./

Soundwave waited a little, but the drone was silent. The spy ran his fingers across Laserbeak's back and the drone vibrated slightly, responding to the touch. Still with him, then. Good.

/Possibility 4. I did shift... but not a phase. The bridges sucked me in and brought me back... to the same place... in a different place.  
If this is what a parallel universe is, I want no part in it./

Laserbeak pinged him suggestively.  
/Yes, we will recon. After we're done with the basics. It's not like we have any urgent business now/  
He turned to look at Megatron. The warlord was as lifeless as few clicks ago.

/Possibility 5... scrap it, this is absolutely improbable./

He assessed his resources: energon circuits 64% full, Laserbeak's - 72%. Built-in bridging devices - seemed operational. However, he needed coördinates to bridge and those were eluding him. He decided not to waste energon on a test run.

He couldn't position himself and define the coordinates, but perhaps he could find some familiar landmark, something he had on his maps... then he'd bridge the hell out of here.

/Laserbeak, eject. Operation:Recon. /

The drone detached and flew up. While he waited, Soundwave set to scan the frequencies.


	2. Chapter 2

Con frequencies were dead. As were the high frequencies both factions used. Soundwave turned to assumed autobot range, but dead silence was all there was. He would hardly be able to decode 'bot frequencies, but he should have been able to detect them at least.

A distressed ping from Laserbeak interrupted his scan. The drone seemed disoriented and requested navigation aid. Soundwave quickly pinpointed her on the radar - she didn't fly far. In fact, she should have been much further according to the flight logs Laserbeak passed him. He guided her back to him, marvelling at how her speed seemed to change while in fact it was steady.

Some kind of space distortion it would seem. It was a long time since he had last encountered a space distortion big enough to be of significance. The drone landed on the grass beside him and pinged him with fear.

Soundwave reached down to pat her wings. /Fear not, Laserbeak. Nothing mystical here. I've seen it before/

He attuned his equipment to assess the gravity fields then. The data he got made him disconnect from Laserbeak to hide his own distress. The matter - the space seemed to lock onto itself in an infinite loop, threaded through itself like a string through the needle in what appeared to be a singularity.

That must have been their entrance point.

The spy motioned the drone to attach to her place on his armor, transformed and flew up to the space bottleneck. He felt distortion, but his hull was strong enough not to bend under this gravity disruption. He paused at the calculated event horizon. The pull was strong and he would hardly be able to withstand it past this point. Laserbeak pinged him with panic. He sent her a calming package and rushed toward the blackness of the singularity.

He didn't quite perceive what happened. One moment of blackness and he was rushing _from_ the entry point back toward Megatron's landing point. To rule out a stupid mistake, Soundwave turned back and aimed for the very center of blackness again - and he flew through with the same result.

So... the space had been looped!  
He transformed and landed - there were massive calculations to be done. As a final check he reached to touch Megatron's corpse. His fingers slid through it.

Laserbeak pinged him questioningly.  
/Not sure yet/ he responded, bending down to poke at the ground. The ground was solid.  
/I didn't finish the frequencies scan. Check the human ranges while I adjust my calculus/

He was busy for the rest of the day. And the night. And another day. Laserbeak pinged him with agitation, but he responded with a "desist" package, unwilling to stop his work. Changing constants re-defined all his thinking. He made sure to backup everything for when they would return into normal dimension and that required a lot of storage capacity. He even had to remove some of his memories and now he had hard time deciding which ones he should let go. Of course, he did have a backup archive in Nemesis databanks - which is why he didn't hesitate to crush his drives when autobots tried to scare him. However, he could count no more on restore from backup. Who knows where Nemesis was now and what autobots did to it?

Laserbeak pinged him repeatedly.  
/What?!/  
Instead of answer, Laserbeak filled the air with intercepted cellular signals. There was something strange about them, but they were definitely human. This needed interrogation, but the basics had upper priority. /Good job. Rest./

It took him two more days to examine his memories and define which of them he could erase. He ended up letting go of Rumble and Frenzy - he was reluctant to do it first, but they had no significance other than emotional attachment and it was rational to sacrifice it for practical and useful things. He kept their blueprints though.

Once the new mathematical model of the universe was installed and tested (he made Laserbeak fly around this dimensional pocket and was satisfied that no contradictory measurements were registered), the communications chief turned his attention to human waves.

With the next sunrise Laserbeak returned onlined and pinged him with curiosity.

/Yes, I do have a working theory. The crossed streams interlaced and created an infinite loophole mixing a part of parallel universe with ours. We were unlucky to be part of the mixed matter. This dimensional pocket doesn't really belong to neither universes, it's a transitional zone that got locked onto itself. And this transitional zone is small. We fell through a wormhole and the only way out would be back through the bottleneck. The problem is, it appears to be a klein-bottle. There is no out, there is only in./

Laserbeak trembled and he traced her wings to calm her down a little. Truth to be told, he was awed by these results as well. He threw a quick glance toward Megatron's cask. The dead body didn't change a bit. Soundwave ex-vented and continued:

/We perceive our universe in light and radio waves frequencies. We can't make contact because of time-space shift. And it seems that cybertronians have left this planet. We're on our own./

The next ping from Laserbeak carried over a dawning hope she nursed

/Yes, I think I know how./


	3. Chapter 3

/Yes, I think I know how/ - Soundwave repeated without even taking notice. He had been up and running all this time and all the mental concentration and shock of everything that happened on Nemesis and after were  
taking their toll on him. Yet, he was determined not to linger in this... shadowzone one nanoclick longer than absolutely necessary.

He glanced at Megatron. The warlord was as lifeless as he had been all this time. Soundwave had to get out. If not for any other reason, then at least to make sure his lord was beyond rescue.

Laserbeak pinged him with worry. Soundwave realised he didn't pass over the details of his plan.

/I am positive a precise bridge vortex opened in the point of singularity will reverse the particles' flow and enable us to step back through./

Laserbeak's answering ping was filled with doubt. Soundwave gestured irritably /Either it does or it doesn't. Simple as that/

The drone attached herself to her docking ports on Soundwave's armor as the spy checked his calculations one last time before surging up .  
He wasn't sure how long he would be able to keep the portal open - energy consumption wasn't an issue normally, but under these weird physical conditions... there was really no telling how energy consuming this  
endeavour would be.

To minimize the time needed he decided to get to the event horizon first. He sped up and invoked the portal.

Maybe that hadn't been the best idea.

The flash was equivalent to three or four ton energon explosion, momentarily blinding his visual receptors. The blast that hit him a nanoclick later offlined him altogether. Perimeter sensors reported excessive armor damage, but there was no one home to receive their message.

Laserbeak was the first to return online. She pinged him, but he was not responding. Even through space distortion, Laserbeak was able to determine that they were speeding toward the ground. The drone panicked and fluttered heer wings against Soundwave's armor, but then she gather her wits and detached from her knocked out master. The drone caught his narrow wings with her taw-claws and tried to slow down their fall.

Soundwave was too heavy for her. But she did her best. The ground seemed further away than it was - blasted space distortion was still affecting Laserbeak's navigation - the drone was much simpler than her creator, the basic math was hardwired into her, there was no changing it. In this perverted space Laserbeak had to rely on Soundwave to navigate her way around. And now he was the one in need of assist.

Sensing an inevitable crush, the little flyer yelled on all available frequencies on top of her transmitting powers. Soundwave didn't respond. Nanoclick apart of the crush, Laserbeak sent a "sorry" ping and shocked her host through her feelers.

Electric blast did what other efforts failed to - it invoked middleware danger protocols and triggered emergency transformation. Unable to let go of her host, Laserbeak got her feelers tangled with the navy mech limbs just  
before they both hit the ground.

A faint, but unmistakable smell of energon filled the air.  
Soundwave onlined in complete darkness and first assessed his damage. He spotted a small energon leak under the knee-joint and shut that part of circuitry down. It wasn't severe as he only lost 2 percent of his energon reserves so far. But he knew the danger of ignoring the tiniest leaks. Self-repair nanos should be able to fix it given time. The damage reports mainly listed his peds armor and wings, they did not account for the darkness his visual receptors registered.  
/Laserbeak../  
The drone responded instantly flooding the link with her relief. Soundwave waited a few clicks to let her express her emotions. When the intensity of it subsided, he sent her a few grateful and reassuring packages.

/Status report?/

Laserbeak passed over her own damage assessment. The drone was practically unharmed, a few dents on her wings aside.

/Where are we?/

Laserbeak passed over her flight logs of their ungracious fall. It made no sense. The spy was now lying face up, and he should be able to perceive... at least something. He probed the surface he was lying on with a feeler. It was mud. And small rocks.  
He lit up his headlight. The darkness didn't shift a bit.

/Do you have a visual?/ Laserbeak pinged him back negatively.

Soundwave knew he should restrain from moving and let the self-repair nanos do their job, but the dawning understanding of his whereabouts was so distressing, that he couldn't lie still.  
He rolled to the side and rose up, pushing himself off the ground.

A guess turned to knowledge and he rushed from the spot, ignoring the warning messages that popped up. Only when he was out of the crater he trusted himself to look back. Megatrons corpse was as motionless as before. Inside and outside.

Soundwave broke and overrode all thoughts about him occupying the same space as Megatron's body on the other side. To keep himself busy, he carefully shifted his plates around to let Laserbeak retract her feelers, which she hastily did. Yet, he kept throwing glances back into the crater.

Laserbeak pinged him with understanding and mild concern.  
/Yes, you're right. I should recharge and think of another way out later/


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The new plan.

Was it because of the wounds or the mental stress of it all, or - quite possible as well - due to twisted time-space in this dimensional abnormality, but Soundwave stayed offline for four solar cycles - unprecedentedly long for a recharge.

Laserbeak didn't trust herself to fly around while he was offline. Instead, the drone settled to watch atop a rock overshadowing Soundwave's improvised berth. Not that there had been anything to watch out for. Distant and distorted human signals were all she was getting from the air. In this forsaken place rust seemed to be their biggest foe.

When Soundwave finally onlined and stirred, Laserbeak pinged him cheerfully. She was glad to have company at last.

/Anything to report?/ - her response was negative but Soundwave expected that much. In case of any abnormality, she would trigger an emergency recharge interruption sequence. The spy assessed the repairs that his nanos completed while he was out and found it satisfactory. It cost him about forty percent of his self-repair capacity but it was worth it. There was no use in sparing nanos in favor of possible injuries in the future while he had been leaking here and now.

He restored energon circulation in his repaired leg and rose. The rebuilt joint was tender but it held him. Laserbeak watched him shift his weight, testing his systems and pinged him impatiently.

Soundwave transmitted her his speculations:

/Math aside, the most probable cause of the explosion is the loop itself. I still think a bridge would do the trick, but the alignment was wrong/

Laserbeak pinged him with encouragement

/It is impossible to break it from the inside. We need to open a bridge from the outside. Come/ The drone attached herself to his armor and Soundwave started walking, sharing his thoughts as he went.

/We don't know what happened to Nemesis and how to reach it, the ship's groundbridge is unavailable. Earth is not cyberforming, that makes a valid assumption that Shockwave is not controlling the Omega lock anymore. Autobots must have seized control over the ship.../ anger rose, and Soundwave de-prioritized emotions to continue

/Current Nemesis location - unknown. Means to uncover it - absent./

Laserbeak shuddered and Soundwave petted her wings to calm the drone down.

/ However, the space bridge on the orbit has no onsite controls. It is unknown if the autobots seized control of that facility, but if they control the ship, they also control the spacebridge, whether aware of it or not. It is also unknown if the 'bots are still lurking around the Harbinger. Potentially, we have four bridges within operating distance. Two with Nemesis gone. Autobots are only eight, they can't control them all. And after MECH, it would be extremely stupid for them to let humans anywhere near this technology./

He stopped and stood still for several clicks. Laserbeak didn't disturb him, knowing well that this meant her host was compiling some complex code. The moment Soundwave stirred again, the link between them was filled with code. /Patch up your decoder. Lock onto agent Fowler's cellphone and those of the kids. We need to know bots dispositions. And the outcome of the battle. And whether Shockwave is still functioning./

Laserbeak pinged him with query and underlying delight at having something to do.

/Yes, Starscream, too. Anything. And GPS them, even if it makes no sense/

Soundwave stopped at the edge of the crater and looked down. Megatron was as lifeless as before. The spy carefully walked down the slope and sat a couple of dozens feet away from his late master.

/We set camp here/

Laserbeak pinged him back with negative figures of comfort.

/We sat camp here. I need Megatron./ Soundwave said and then added /I need him for one thing he always did best and still can do for me.../

Not waiting for Laserbeak to flood him with her nagging curiosity - like he knew she would, he explained: /He gives me purpose. Motivation. Determination. Inspiration./

Laserbeak pinged him back with understanding.

Before turning all his attention to 3G signals, Soundwave whispered "To the pits of hell and back, if needed" - the vow he gave tohis leader when Megatron branded him with the decepticon symbol what now seemed to be an eternity ago. Looked like the time was now, and "back" was needed indeed.

Clicks had passed and turned to orns and then cycles. Little by little, a short message here, a slip of word there and the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle were slowly coming together.

Outside this silent hell the human planet was bustling with life, with light and sound, unaware how close this world had come to its annihilation. Those who did know were too elated to maintain their former guerilla lifestyle. Humans had paperwork to file. Paperwork was stored in databanks. Databanks were hidden behind firewalls. Soundwave had always found human firewalls adorable - so naive. So fragile!

Less than a week after agent Fowler had filed his top classified, ad hoc report on autobots' utter and complete victory, it's content unfolded on Soundwave's visor.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A new plan, a familiar face and things that are happening on Cybertron meanwhile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Discl.: Soundwave's opinion on humankind in general and some parts of it in particular is just that: his opinion. He's being judgemental towards humans, don't take it personally.
> 
> And I'm craving feedback!

Agent Fowler's report turned out to be quite informative. Soundwave shared his findings with his companion. After a few clicks of them both processing the info, Laserbeak commed him with a question sign.

/I have a few thoughts/ - Soundwave answered. She waited for him to continue, but he didn't. Instead, he asked /How do you feel about autobots restoring Cybertron instead of us?/ Laserbeak instantly responded with a wave of anger.

/Yes. Me too... keep monitoring their humans/

Megatron once said "Treachery lies at the core of all beings - whether they realise it or not. You just have to find it". So Soundwave kept looking. Hidden in this netherworld, he was untraceable as he plugged into thousands of mobile phones and 3g devices at once - let them humans puzzle over inexplanable surges of internet traffic and plague their providers with claims, Soundwave didn't fear to disclose himself - what did he have to lose? Let autobots come to finish him off - that would only mean he would get out, scrapping them on the way.

Soundwave knew what, or rather who he wanted to find. Humans were so naive! A whole bunch of them spent their useless lives trying to track down aliens on Earth. These guys would do anything for him if he would lead them on...

First off, the bait. A slightly blurred photo of the Harbinger's landing site on UFOlogists forum... and a message - "assembling a research party to investigate".

A solar cycle passed. Laserbeak reported 'bot human allies phone activity. They were traceable and stayed in one area for the most of the day, until they all gathered together and moved to some location, where their signals disappeared only to appear a few minutes later at several hundred miles east. Soundwave looked up the coordinates at which gps signals disappeared. It was an empty spot in the desert just outside Jasper. The destination coordinates loosely matched the coordinates he provided to Starscream for his failed autobot base assault.

/Starscream, you incompetent fool!/ If not for the Seeker's mistake, they might have been celebrating victory now instead of their current predicament! Laserbeak sent him a soothing wave. Soundwave responded with irritation. He didn't need to be calmed down like a sparkling. Her answering ping was apologethical. Soundwave ex-vented. He now had one more reason to escape - one more face to punch.

The spy checked his bait on the forum. Surprisingly, the Harbinger photo had been replaced by a familiar dancing mouse gif. Several snarky comments regarding investigating mice indicated that the change had been made not long after Soundwave posted the initial pic. It took the mech a while to find a match for the picture - he had last seen this ugly squeaking thing when Starscream had claimed he found an autobot' sighting. Interesting.

Soundwave deleted the initial post and posted the photo anew. He hacked into the forum database, waiting for the change to occur. /Laserbeak, report autobot humans location/

Laserbeak passed him the gps data. The trio was together and moving toward the presumed bridging spot. After they disappeared to the autobot base it took nearly an orn before Soundwave registered the hacker enter the forum to replace the picture. The time-shift made more precise measurement impossible.

As the hacker slowly worked to replace the picture, Soundwave sent a simple virus through his own connection. He traced the unknown human back to his entry point gateway which turned out to be on the same human military facility that housed the autobot base. That would probably mean one human who could prove challenging to him - a small pest with transparent visor. The one called Raf. The one he should be careful not to alert yet.

Soundwave cancelled the virus after its first attempt to get past the firewall - right on time, as the hacker finished his work and was pulling out too.

Still, the spy needed agents on the other side. If Raf was going to track and block all his recruiting attempts... he will just have to act more discreetly.

Soundwave looked up for ip addresses and emails of the forum members. A quick check found several matches within the reasonable distance from the Harbinger. Raf may intercept him in the public, but he had no means controlling private communications. As a second thought, Soundwave also hacked into a few occult communities. As he reckoned from his monitorings, occultists were even less sound thinking humans than ufologists*.

He chose two and a half dozens addresses for a start and spent a half-orn composing messages. Laserbeal pinged him with impatience and curiosity.

/We make contact with humans, lure them into the Harbinger and make them open the ground bridge./

Soundwave knew he could do that. Failure was not an option. But it might take time. 

He threw a glance at Megatron. Time was one thing he had now.

* * *

_Meanwhile on Cybertron..._

" Starscream, I understand that your emotions make you irrational, however I once again stress that we need all the aid we can get to make our stand against the autobots and Predaking is one asset worth many others."

"..what makes you think for a moment, Shockwave, that he will listen to you?! Your beast blames us for the extermination of his kind, does he not? You haven't been there, when he went on a rampage and attacked Megatron! He'll scrap you at the first sight. Not that I care."

"His "rampage" alone suggests that he is emotional and hence bound to acknowledge me as his creator. His emotions will make him hesitate long enough for me to lay my case."

"Getting sentimental now, are you?"

"Being logical. The fact that I possess no such weakness doesn't imply that he is free from attachment"

"whatever! Just do whatever but don't you dare to get scrapped and leave me alone with this mess!"

"That had never been my intention" said Shockwave and added, as the door was already closing behind him, - "you are not competent enough"

Starscream scowled at that but the door closed and cut off his answer.

As Shockwave entered his old laboratory, everything was... Too good. All the tools that he lacked resources to repair before were now brand new. Coming here was risky - he didn't know when autobots would finally remember to check out decepticon facilities known to them. Currently all cons that managed to flee Nemesis and find their way back to Starscream and him were all staying well clear of Kaon, holed up in old ( new) mines and tech facilities, and making sure autobots got occasional alerts and sightings as far from their real hideouts as possible. Let them go chasing their own tail, Starscream said. Shockwave had to hand it to Starscream - grief-stricken or not, when it came to pulling nasties on the enemies, the air commander was second to Soundwave only (and this only because he lacked Soundwave's abilities for fine tuned sabotage).

Predaking was contributing to he mess, attacking whoever came into his view (autobots mostly, as con refugees stayed underground)

Paired with him and free from his threat cons could really turn the tables. Maybe Predaking would even be able to take out the Prime. So here he was with a peace-offering in the only place they both knew of.

Shockwave checked the lab once again and activated the homing beacon. He didn't count on instinct bringing Predaking home, but the predacon should feel the call.

He didn't have to want for too long.

\- You dare calling for me?! - Predaking shouted even before he fully transformed. Shockwave was pleased. Had there been no hope for agreement, the beast would hardly bother to speak.

He just had to choose his words carefully now.


	6. Chapter 6

_Still on Cybertron_

Predaking advanced into the lab, throwing a careful glance around. Upon making sure no other con was in sight, the predacon came to stand right in front of Shockwave, towering over the scientist with his tremendous might.

Shockwave kept silent. Predaking growled in irritation: "Well?!" he demanded.

"It has been a while since we last met. It does my spark well to see that you adjusted to Cybertron successfully. Though I won't deny that this isn't the reason why I called you here."

Predaking narrowed his eyes.

Shockwave continued: "I require your assistance."

"You what?! Why should I help you?! You stood by when Megatron ordered my kind's extermination! You knew and did nothing!"

Shockwave stood up to all his height " it was a logical decision" he said, fully aware what may follow his words. A fist hit him in the chest, throwing him back. He hit the wall. Hard. It was almost a pity to make fresh dents in this brand new, shiny walls. Almost.

Before he could bounce back, Predaking's palm pinned him to the wall. Shockwave met his burning gaze with calm concentration: "Megatron might have let the autobots discover my laboratory, but he was not the one to blow it in the air" Shockwave still made no attempt to defend himself.

"Why wouldn't I kill you right now?" Predaking growled.

"I am your creator"

"Weren't you their creator as well?!" - the beast' optics narrowed dangerously

"Yes" - Shockwave said simply. " I recognize the reason for your turmoil. You thought them to be your kin"

Predaking hauled the scientist to the opposite wall. Shockwave grouped and landed on his peds, but still made no attempt to counter.

"They were my brethren!"- Predaking bellowed.

"Correction: they would become your brethren once sparked. Until then, they were nothing but protoforms, projects, possibilities of the future"

"And you, cons, took that away!" - Predaking advanced, balling his fists

"... The possibility is still there"

That stopped the predacon. For a moment he regarded his creator, tilting his head. "what are you saying?"

"Return to us, and we will start project Predacon from the point we left of"

Predaking erupted in bitter laughter "You expect me to believe that? I served the 'cons since the moment I was sparked! I was loyal to your leader! and all I got was a stab in the back!"

"Had your loyalty been true, the destruction of the protoforms wouldn't affect it. Megatron tested you and you failed the test"

"Why doesn't he tell me this to my face?! Is you mighty leader so scared of me, that he has to hide behind your back now?" Shockwave studied his creation. Rage, venom, bitterness. He was a perfect warrior indeed.

"You are not informed. Lord Megatron was murdered by an autobot"

Predaking lashed out unexpectedly and hit the wall beside him. Long talons left deep scratches on the shiny surface. "It had to be my hand that tore his spark out" he muttered."Who leads the decepticons now? "You?"

".. There is no formal leader yet. It would be illogical to struggle for control as long as the autobots control he planet. Me and Starscream share the responsibility" - he didn't say "for now" but that much had been obvious.

Predaking paced a little, undisturbed by Shockwave's single optic following his movements.

"No. I do not trust you, not to mention Starscream. I won't come back to being a pawn in your games."

"Whatever happens inside the 'cons ranks, autobots are our common enemy. Joining forces against them is only logical. Think about it. "

"I'd rather join forces with the weakest of creatures than let cons feed me their lies! Do not call for me again" - Predaking turned to leave- "for next time I will not spare you."

"Predaking! " - The predacon paused in the doorway, but refused to turn back- "Whatever you decide, know this: ever since I first discovered predacon bones on Cybertron, I was fascinated by the possibility to bring this magnificent life form back to existence. Your intelligence was not accounted for, but you have exceeded all expectations. And seeing you as you are now, I am proud."

Predaking nodded shortly, transformed and surged up.

As Shockwave returned to their temporary base, Starscream was listening to energon scouts report. However, seeing the scientist enter the hall, he dismissed them and gave Shockwave a look down, noting dents and scraps on his chassis.

"You are alone "- he screeched.

"I am alive" - Shockwave countered- "he will come eventually. The temptation is too great for him not to."

* * *

Those humans were such pest! Soundwave was frustrated by the amount of distortions, quotations and hints they used in their communication. He managed to keep up, but even shortest messages required tons and tons of research. Why couldn't they use their own words in their direct meaning? Why didn't he spend more time on study when he had the resources? Last question was rhetorical: Soundwave had always been overloaded with work, he barely had time to recharge.

In a few days, it seemed, he struck a lucky chord - some of the humans he communicated with appeared to be sharing information with each other. He proposed a trip to Harbinger to all of them and mentioned that he had been on sight, but didn't dare to venture in alone. Strangely, admitting ones weakness inspired sympathy in these creatures. " Cool, man! Who else i in the game?" - Jimmy was the quickest to respond. Soundwave checked up the guy's connections. Sending him a list of people he definitely knew, Soundwave expressed a hope that all of them would make it. "next weekend?" Came the reply. Bummer. Weeks. Soundwave never grasped why some particular days in a week were more important than the others.

"Why not tomorrow?" Soundwave couldn't help but ask.

"You're kidding? Tomorrow's Monday and I still need to get an "all clear" with my folk. Anyway, it takes time to prepare. We can start off Friday night - we should get to your coordinates by Saturday noon, provided everything goes smooth"

And again Soundwave felt out of context. His extensive research resulted in "I see you have some experience with this stuff. Can you organize the other guys?"

An alarm went off unexpectedly and startled Soundwave. "Active energon level approaching 20%. Recharge required."

Soundwave checked up his systems for a leak. How could he burn through his reserves so quickly? This interdimensonal communication took more resources than he anticipated.

/Laserbeak, report your energy status/

Laserbeak performed a check and sent him her data. The drone still had above 50% of her charge. Which meant listening was savvy. It's the transmission that required power.

Soundwave instructed his companion to wake him up in case anything happened or his human interlocutors started worrying about his absence.

He didn't actually expect her to, but such had been the protocol.

He didn't know how much time had passed, when emergency recharge interruption sequence pushed him online none too gently.

Laserbeak was flooding their link with fear.

Soundwave reached out to comfort her and assessed his surroundings. He found the source of this commotion right away: violet light trails were zigzaging toward them. They looked like lightnings, except for the color, and Soundwave knew all too well what it was.

Dark energon.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Desecration time!

Soundwave jumped to his peds right as a violet bolt was about to reach him. He didn't manage to get out of its way completely but his systems registered no distortions typical for dark energon's exposure even as the streak passed right under his ped. He bent down and touched the lightning, ignoring Laserbeak's panicked flutter against his chest plates.

Nothing.

The light emanating from the substance shone through his fingers. It was on the other side.

Soundwave turned to follow dark energon's flow and froze watching the lightnings worm toward Megatron's dead body.

/NO!/

The sky was darkening quickly, some big shadow manifesting itself in the air. The worms of lilac light reached his leader's corpse and edged inside, casting macabre reflections onto the polished steel. Soundwave couldn't make himself stir.

The shadow formed into a horned figure, eyes ablaze with dark energon lilac haze. Even in his dimensional pocket, Soundwave felt the suppressing presence of this mighty entity. Unicron.

Suddenly all frequencies he could perceive were filled with low rumble, slow and overwhelming "RRRRAAAIIISSSEEE!" The spy felt it reverberate through his own circuits, invoking anguish he couldn't quite grasp or explain. It was kin to the effect low frequencies had on the native life forms on this planet. Laserbeak chirped in fear and went offline. For a split click Soundwave envied her.

Shadowy figure stretched its shadowy appendage toward Megatron and the latter stirred responding to this call. Soundwave felt a mixture of awe and hope watching the remnants of his leader come back to life. Unicron was an enemy, but dark energon had saved Megatron in the space bridge explosion. Soundwave watched, unmoving, even his cooling fans stopped working. The figure in the crater tried to get up. His movements were erratic at first, but grew steadier and smoother by every nanoclick, and by the time the gladiator stood up, he was moving almost as smoothly as Megatron did when he had been alive.

Lilac glow emanated from all the seams and ports on his body, manifesting dark energon at work, and for a few clicks Soundwave actually allowed himself to hope.

He saw Megatron speak, but no sound was reaching his audials. Unicron's response, however, carried across clearly "OOOONNNLLLYYY TTOOOO SEEERRVVEEE MMEEEEEE!"

The newly reanimated warlord lowered his helm and clumsily sank to his knees. Soundwave's hope died so abruptly and painfully, that he involuntarily covered his head with his wings, shielding himself from the torturing view.

MEGATRON NEVER BOWED TO ANYONE! Megatron served no one! This wasn't, this couldn't be him! New transmission made him look out from behind his improvised shield. Slowing his perception down to match Unicron's transmitting speed, Soundwave read "IT IS TIME TO FINISH WHAT YOU FAILED TO ACCOMPLISH, SLAVE. I FEEL THE SPARK OF PRIMUS ALIVE AGAIN. OUR ETERNAL STRUGGLE WILL NOW COME TO AN END. I WILL GUIDE YOU. TAKE CYBERTRON AS YOU HAVE ALWAYS DESIRED. SNUFF THE SPARK OF PRIMUS IN MY NAME!"

Megatron-Imposter bowed again, making the spy see red. For a click or two all Soundwave's circuits got overloaded, while he was struggling to process this data. He was completely unresponsive. When he realised his surroundings again, Unicron's manifestation had already been gone, dissolved in the air, the lilac glow subsided and Soundwave watched with a heavy spark his old comrade turned terrorcon walk away from his own death scene. Snuff Primus's spark? Kill Cybertron over again?! Megatron would never..!

This wasn't Megatron. White hot anger burned inside the Communication's Chief.

He rushed to intercept the imposter, took over him, turned and put himself in his way, wings aside, sending his feelers forward to grasp, to shock the terrorcon. Stupid, but he hadn't been thinking. Dead violet glowing optics looked through him and a split click later the gladiator walked right through him and out of the reach of this dimensional pocket.

Soundwave helplessly watched pseudo-Megatron walk down the hill. Halfway down the slope, the imposter stopped and looked around. It looked like he was sampling the athmosphere. Turning left, the steely mech disappeared into the forest only to appear half a click later with the Dark Star Saber in his servo, it's blade shining brighter than Soundwave had ever seen it shine in Megatron's hands. The pseudo-Megatron gave the blade a few test swings before sending a wave to cut through the forest and up the hill toward where Soundwave was standing.

Even though the spy was behind a dimensional barrier, he instinctively dove to the ground and shielded his sensitive sensors with his wings. The wave passed above him, cutting everything in its way. Trees chunks and twigs were falling around and through Soundwave.

The gladiator's faceplates shifted into a menacing scowl, rather like Megatron's evil grin, but yet much more vicious. The steely mech swung the blade one final time and sheathed it. He stood unmoving for a click, then turned his back to where Soundwave was getting up to his peds and set on walking. The spy watch him go.

He had to stop him! He had to get out NOW.

And deity or no deity, Unicron would pay dearly for desecrating his leader's remains.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Soundwave acts at last. Humans... are in trouble, obviously.

Soundwave shocked Laserbeak out of stasis. She pinged him with worry, residual fear still clinging to their link. /Yes, Laserbeak, he's gone. We need to hasten our progress. Find me my humans/

As she set to work, Soundwave revised his plans. Unicron was strong, but apparently, he still was bound to this rock. Otherwise, he would have acted sooner. There was no telling if the imposter possessed all of Megatron's might or if Unicron added something on top of it, but of one thing Soundwave was nearly sure: he had no space bridge.

Soundwave had to make sure the abomination would not lay his hands on the space bridge.

Laserbeak pinged him with mission accomplished and passed up the coordinates and arrival estimation of five of six humans Soundwave had expected. One appeared to be still in town. Laserbeak expected the humans to reach the meeting point within one to one and a half hours. The drone's report sounded apologetically. She was not used to such wide estimates and considered her inability to calculate speed and time more precisely to be a failure of a kind. Normally, Soundwave would comfort her, but now he was too busy calculating possibilities.

Bot's base, the space bridge on the orbit, the Harbinger. Three sites he had to secure. And pass the warning to cons on Cybertron. And possibly prevent Megatron - pseudo-Megatron, he corrected himself, - from gathering 'con forces that remained scattered on Earth. How much time did he have?

Definitely not enough to continue with his current cautious and subtle plan. When time was of the essence, considerations of finesse and delicacy should be put aside. An alternate plan formed in his processor.

Soundwave set down to devise a virus. Laserbeak pinged him with query /Yes, alert me when they are on site/

Should he perhaps contact the bots and warn them so they would protect their base better? That might be logical, but reaching out to them from the shadow zone would put himself at their mercy. And recalling how they were going to dissect him last time he had been at their mercy, that option he would spare for when he really had no choice.

No, he needs to be out of their reach first.

Soundwave had never been a slow-thinking mech, but his processors could really do marvels when working under pressure. The virus was ready even before his humans arrived at Harbinger's site.

/Laserbeak: stand by on their communication. Calls, files, sms, anything - alert me/  
Laserbeak pinged him back nearly immediately and streamed him the intercepted video call from Jimmy. As Sounddwave expected, his group of humans wasn't baffled in the least that he didn't show up when expected. He succeeded at creating an image of a loser that could just chicken out at the last moment. They were five (Soundwave was expecting six, but apparently, one of the females didn't make it and now Jimmy was calling to tell her how much she had missed), they were adventurous, they were full of some stupid bravado.

Soundwave appointed a meeting on a spot that provided a perfect view on the Harbinger's crash landing site. But he might not worry - they had found the ship using google maps satellite view and were too excited to have doubts.

So far, perfect.

Soundwave sent them all a message "Sorry, guys, can't make it - I'm stuck here" and completed it with a virus, embedded into the dancing mouse flash. There was something ironic in using the decoy Raf used on them on humans.

"WOW! You guys look at that!" - the humans had reached the ship. Even broken in half, the decepticon transporter was a sight to behold.

It was still a couple of hours before sunset, so it was decided, they would recon first and set up camp later.

"That Safe&Sound guy is missing the adventure of his life. Loser. And what's this crap he's sending anyway? Is it just me, or did you guys get it too?" - Beth remarked, reading the MMS before walking in into the torn and empty cargo bay. 

One by one they checked their messages. One by one Soundwave gained control over their phones. He re-routed their cellphones to a non-existent node (his node, which was technically non-existent). Now nothing would really go out into the net and he had both visual and audial. 

Wait. All he had to do was wait.  
"Moron" - Austin commented, deleting the message. He wasn't aware that the damage has been already done, - "You filming it, Jim?"  
"Yup. This place is HUGE!"

Listening to human's chatter was extremely annoying. But he had to stand by not to miss a moment when they would enter the command bridge.

"Guys" - Lindsey said, her voice slightly trembling, - "is this thing still working? do you think there might be aliens in here? Maybe we shouldn't..?"

"Come on! this place is clearly abandoned, look at all this dust! It crashed here years ago" - Jimmy urged her on. "And if something is still living, Chad here brought a crossbow"

"Don't worry, Linds, I won't let aliens abduct you" - Chad showed off his weapon.  
Hadn't the situation been so dire, Soundwave would laugh at them. 

"Yo guys!" - Beth's voice came from next room - "check this out!"

The control bridge. Finally. Jimmy (good boy!) turned around, catching all the insides of the bridge as beams of light from five flashlights made consoles and control panels emerge from the darkness. Soundwave noted that the power core had been cabled to the energon line. He expected that much, since obviously Starscream had not been known for cleaning up his mess. The spy was just about to trigger his virus, when he realized that something was missing.

He quickly called up Harbinger blueprints and specifications from his databank, and realized with horror that the niche that should have contained the bridging equipment was stripped clean.

The Autobots. That is how they managed to get a new ground bridge after Megatron destroyed their base in Jasper...Those fraggers really needed to start building their own toys!

Luckily, Soundwave had a plan B. As the humans were discussing if they should leave for now and start settling for the night, Soundwave triggered his masterpiece of a virus. All the cellphones started ringing, only... it hadn't been a ringtone. It had been old cybertronian. All decepticon vessel were hard programmed to activate and switch to voice command upon the trigger code sequence. The codes were unique for the vessels, but Soundwave hadn't been a Chief Communications Officer for nothing. He invented those codes.  
The power core activated and consoles lit up.

"WHOA! What the hell?!"  
"Black code plague alert! Engage quarantine mode" - the phones chirped in unison, not that humans could understand what they were saying. But as the sliders shut into place, locking the bridge and all other rooms, dividing the Harbinger into many small sealed pockets, they did understand.

Initially, Soundwave wanted to wait till the panic calmed down. But seeing as that was not going to happen for a while, he played a high-pitched yell that made them stop shouting at last.

"Hello, humans!" - Jimmy dropped his phone when it said that in a mechanical voice, and upon hitting the floor it lost its battery, but Beth's phone continued in the same voice smoothly, as if nothing happened: "It is Safe&Sound speaking. Like I informed you before, I am sorry I couldn't make it to the meeting point. But I am stuck here. And you, humans, will help me get out. Now, before you start harming yourself against the interior of my ship, I want you to know that while your well-being is of no value to me, I do not intend to harm you unless absolutely necessary. Compliance: desirable"


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Soundwave's escape plan seems to be approaching its end. So is the energy. Are humans really the weak link?

It took some time. Soundwave turned to receiving mode trying to savor whatever resources he still had. While humans discussed their situation - Soundwave stopped paying attention after their discussion made two full circles around the group, - he was evaluating probabilities. The choice between two courses of action - between negotiating with autobots and hacking their systems, - proved to be a tough one. Let humans panic, calm, call 911 - whatever. As long as scraplets were in the trap, it didn't matter what they were doing there.

Laserbeak pinged him with impatience and her craving for action. He ignored her. Now was not the time to chat.

When finally, human noise subsided, he still wasn't sure which cause was best. "Well? Have you met a decision?" - he asked, when they called his alias several times.

"What if we refuse?" - Chad asked "What if we shut off these blasted phones and wait for rescue? Sandra knows where we were headed. If we're not back by Monday, she'll alert the authorities"

Interesting. Soundwave thought Jimmy to be the spokesperson of this group, but apparently, his position was compromised by leading them all into the spy's trap. The humans put Beth's phone on the base of energon diffuser and spoke to it as if it was alive. Soundwave was amused by it, however briefly.

"I am no expert" - he answered, "but as far as I know, your kind needs to replenish your oxygen to survive. The task hard to accomplish in a hermetically sealed room. Oxygen in this room: enough to sustain you for... 20 hours, give or take. By then, either I'm there to open the seals or your "authorities" find five young and good looking corpses in a can."

"We'll do it! We'll do it, okay?!" - Lindsey cried out, - I don't wanna die here!" - she added turning to the rest of her group. "No one's gonna die here, Linds" - Beth sounded, as she pulled her friend into an embrace and hushed her down.

"Wait!" - That was Jimmy - "What will you do after we help you?"

That was a valid question. The fleshies wanted to make sure he wouldn't be hostile. Personally, Soundwave found it illogical to assess his threat by asking him directly, but humans were in general just that: illogical.

"I shall leave your planet and return home as soon as possible. I am needed there" - Soundwave transmitted. As any decepticon, except maybe Starscream, he made sure the seeds of deception were hidden among tons of truth.

That invoked another spiraling discussion.

"Wasting time" - Soundwave commented - "Are you in or shall I leave you and switch to plan B?"

"We're in" - Chad said."But it better end good"

"Wise choice. Now. I need one of you to climb up to the main console to my left. Take the phone with you so I could direct you. Once you're up there, call me."

Soundwave was painfully aware of his energy indicators plummeting every time he transmitted, so he was determined to cut the expenses when possible.

If his humans were any indication to how humans negotiated in general, he should avoid that for the sake of keeping his sanity.

Thus, hacking the human Raf was the path he chose. Take what you need while you can and save negotiations for when you can't just take it. Beside, there was some karmic symmetry in freeing himself with the same tools that were used to imprison him in the first place.

Soundwave knew better than to try hacking Raf's notebook by brute force. That would be discovered too quickly and he had learned from his previous encounters with this human that in the game of hacking size didn't matter. Tiny as he was, Raf had outplayed him several times already. No, he will need to maintain his cover as long as possible and fully utilize the element of surprise.

The attack should come from a trusted source.

/Laserbeak. Report autobot humans mobile actions last solar cycle/

Laserbeak paused. Either she was compiling the report, or she was driving home a message that she didn't enjoy being ignored. Soundwave nearly snapped at her, but instead sent her an encouraging package. /Time is of the essence/

Laserbeak chirped indistinctly and passed over the logs he requested.

As expected, Raf wasn't the one to use his phone too often. But he did use bluetooth to sync with his laptop. All Soundwave had to do is pass up the virus so that he wouldn't suspect anything.

However infrequent, multimedia messages were passed around the group, usually originating from one source. The one called Miko. A dancing mouse flash was something the girl might enjoy. Or not? If she deletes it without opening, he might not have another chance. A random voice call would be better.

A call from Beth's phone indicated they managed to climb up the console. Soundwave "picked up" "I'm up here. what now?". Somehow it wasn't surprising to hear Chad. Soundwave split his attention between humans. "Switch on the cam and keep recording the console. I will email you the instructions", - with that he "hung up" and sent two different emails to Chad's and Austin's phones. Beth's phone was feeding him video while Lindsey's transmitted audio feed, so he would know if they would be plotting anything.

"What, he's not even talking to us anymore?" - Austin commented. Then he read the email out loud "'I need you to call another human and speak for 30 seconds at least. Ask for a random name and insist they should be there. The task preferably carried out by a female. Hold the line as long as possible' What kind of shit is that?! How is it getting him... it? out of... wherever?"

Humans looked at each other - all but Chad, who had his own set of commands to follow. Soundwave made sure to be as detailed as possible. "Whoaa! A map!" Chad pressed another sequence of buttons and the scale grew... and grew again, until they were looking at the whole country. No decepticon icons appeared on the screen. Of course, they should stay underground in case of... anything, actually.

Beth came up to Austin and took the phone out of his hand. "If he's in the phones, he wants us to pass him on. Like a virus. Maybe that's what he really is - a virus"

Soundwave sent a sms "Please. You're insulting me by this comparison". She chuckled "suck it up, Safe&Sound, you've earned worse"

New set of commands were fed to Chad. "Guys" - he called out from above, "he wants me to read this: "Soundwave to all crew: report your positions". Do you think he's the boss or something?". That guy was an idiot even for a human! Soundwave needed that to be read into commlink, not to the humans! The Communications Chief sent a new batch of instructions, making sure they were so simple that even a scraplet could follow them.

"That's a dumb question. The real question is: are there more of them on Earth?" - Jimmy sounded somewhere from the corner. "And even more importantly: how big are these things? And what do they want here?"

"Well, maybe you should have asked yourself that BEFORE you brought us to this _abandoned_ place?!"... there it went again. Humans. Endlessly annoying.

Laserbeak pinged him casually and informed about autobots humans approaching the point of bridging. Soundwave's virus was ready. He sent Beth a sms to Austin's phone "wasting time. R U ready?"

"Shoot" - she said.

Soundwave dialed Miko.


	10. Chapter 10

The trip to the pick up point was conducted in silence. There hasn't been much fooling around since the autobots left. Jack, Miko and Raf would still visit the base nearly every day, sometimes they were taken there by agent Fowler or Jack's mom, but mostly there would be one of the troopers to pick them up after school.  
Ratchet would barely leave the hanger these days, scouting for the remaining decepticons and energon signatures. Sometimes he would detect them. Humans took care of it now.  
Disorganised and disoriented, the cons put up little fight as they were offered to surrender and get sent to Cybertron.  
They were mine workers mostly, and didn't want to stay on Earth anyway.  
It was so boring since the bots left. For Miko, at least. Raf got to learn cybertronian under Ratchets tutelage, Jack was eager to start his own training with Fowler or whoever else would be assigned as his supervisor . What was there for Miko? Nothing. She would return to Japan in few months and never see her favorite bot again.  
Human kids stepped through the bridge. Ratchet was humped over a console, continuing his relentless scanning. A cellphone went off in a cacophony of loud and very heavy metal and Ratchet spun around, blades ready before he realized this wasn't a threat.

"What's that NOISE?! I'm working here!" he demanded. Miko fished out her phone "Dude, it's Master of Puppets! Classic!" she retorted before flipping her phone open. "Hello?"

"Ughm... hello, this is Melinda Paterson from Global mail express delivery. We have received an international package for you and I'm calling to clarify the delivery details and schedule the drop off. Would you spare me a minute?" -

"errm.. sure" - Miko said, turning away from Ratchet. "it's not like I have anything better to do anyway"

"Miko.." - the bot started, but she just waved her hand at him and walked aside.

"Okay... first off, may I have your address?"

"You have a package for me and you don't know my address?! "

"Yeah... I'm sorry for the confusion, we don't generally call the customers and ask for details, but there's been a malfunction on the sender side and we only got your phone number now and we would really like to get this package delivered."

"Really? That is one of the lamest things I ever heard! I'm not expecting any international delivery btw. Where does it come from?"

"Let me check..." there was a short silence and then "Russia"

"For real?! I sure as hell expect nothing from Russia! How can you know it's for me?"

"Erm... I only have a phone number. 775-520-5446"

"Yo, miss! This is totally not my number!"

"Are you sure?"

"'Course I'm sure!"

"Well, my apologies then for disturbing you"

The girl on the other side hung up. Miko looked at the phone for a few seconds before shrugging her shoulders and joining Raf.

* * *

Beth hung up and exhaled slowly before looking at the call details. "One minute seven seconds. Happy?" she asked. The phone in her hand vibrated and a new message appeared "Well done".

Soundwave was inside the autobots base now. As he shared this with Laserbeak, her responding ping was filled with thrilled anticipation. He gained control over the device. Unfortunately, there was no visual feed - the girl put her phone into her pocket, so he listened in and waited for a suitable moment to act.

He only had energy for one attempt before he would fall into recharge and lose this race against time.

New emails with instructions were sent and this time Soundwave felt generous enough to add a few words of encouragement. Jimmy climbed up to the console as this was now clearly a two-person job to press the buttons - some of them had to pressed simultaneously and the console was at least twelve feet long

Soon the comm channel was activated and Chad read the last part of instructions: "press "go" and play the audio". Soundwave's slightly distorted, but still recognizable voice filled the room

"Soundwave to all decepticons: Protocol "berth control". We've got an imposter. Cut all contacts until further notice. Do not engage. Repeat: do not engage. Confirm protocol. First triade - come in"

Thirty second of silence, and Jimmy smirked "they don't want to talk to you it seems" - he muttered.

"Second triade - come in"

Silence again. Jim's phone received a message "keep silence"

"First tier mines - come in"

Another long pause.

"Second tier mines - come in"

This time there had been a response: "Commander? CT3V3 reporting: Operations continued according to plan. Two batch of energon ready to pick up. No autobot activity detected. Protocol "berth control" engaged "

"Stop the playback" - the new message read. Chad shrugged and pushed the button. Immediately a new file was received:

"CT3V3 - pass up your coordinates and prepare for energon pick up upon further notice. Assume "shell" protocol. "

"Understood"

* * *

Alarm went off inside Soundwave's processor. Energy levels were down to 20 percent and plummeting. It was now or never, it seemed.

/Laserbeak.../ His fingers touched her chassis. Despite the desperate need for energy he was reluctant to do it. /Plug into my circuits and go to stasis/

The responding transmission was full with panic. /I will bring you online when we're out/. Panic continued pouring out into their link. Energon levels reached 18% and were going down. /Do. it. now./

It was an order and the drone couldn't disobey it. Her conscience left their link, fading away.

Soundwave stood very still, torn between blissful relief at energon flowing into his circuits and sorrow at having to offline his symbiont, however temporary.

Back at autobots base the day went on as usual. Miko was bored beyond boredom. She toyed with her phone, but it didn't really amuse her. "I'm going to the mess - you want anything?" - Miko asked Raf. "yup. fetch me some coke, please" - the boy didn't even look up. Miko sighed and went out. A few minutes after she was gone, she called Raf.

Soundwave seized his chance.

"They don't have coke. Choose between lemonade, orange and cherry"

"Ughmmm... cherry"

"You got it"

Raf got back to his studies. Soundwave was in. Syncing the phone to the laptop was easy. He even managed to pull this in the background. He checked Raf's laptop. There the were: Nemesis coordinates last used for calling a bridge around time the humans trapped him.

Soundwave transformed and surged up, opening the bridge and blocking the laptop controls. The ground bridge controls gave out a beep and Ratchet turned to the console, frowning: "What was that?"

Raf checked on his laptop: "it's... me. But I didn't... Hold on" And the young hacker assaulted the keyboard. Ratchet quickly walked up to the console "It's opening a portal to coordinates we already used."

"I got hacked!"

Ratchet switched the bridge off, but it didn't obey, displaying a dancing mouse flash instead. The medic went to the power switch. It took them half a click to discover the breach and deactivate the bridge, but it had been enough for Soundwave.

The spy flew through the portal and immediately understood that he succeeded - there was sound and the air was filled with transmissions. And also, he got instantly disoriented, his changed calculus making navigation impossible. He was falling.

The spy called up Harbinger coordinates from his databank and activated the bridge. It took all the power he had to spare and as he fell through the vortex, his energy levels went below 10%, the middleware trying to induce stasis.

He fell through to Harbinger's bridge and overrode the middleware long enough to stagger to the main power cord of the ship, yank it loose and plug into his own circuits.

He initiated backup restore that would bring back his normal calculus and fell to stasis.


	11. Chapter 11

As Miko returned to the hanger, two cans of soft drinks in her hands, she immediately sensed that something was off: the laid back boring atmosphere of victory that they enjoyed (or rather endured in Miko's case) was there no more. Ratchet was studying some code lines, his movements crisp and filled wih strained urgency, Raf's expression matched the bot's, the boy chewed at his lower lip, frowning at his laptop.

"Hey, what's the fuss?"

"We got hacked!" - Raf responded without sparing her a glance. Miko ran up to him and hoped on the couch beside. "How? By whom? When?"

"That's what I'm trying to find out..." - logs unfolded on screen and Raf was scanning then quickly, calling up more and more data, looking for a breach. " we got hacked by... me?" - he sounded incredulous, then snatched his phone to connect it for a scan. " And I in turn... was hacked by... YOU!"

"What, me?! I didn't do anything!"

"Gimme your phone" - Miko scrambled, producing the phone from out of her pocket, her dark eyes wide with agitation. "Do you think it was... MECH?"

"unfortunately, no. We know exactly who that was" - Ratchet cut in. "They used the same coordinates you used to get Jack and Miko to Nemesis."

"Soundwave" - Raf whispered, looking up to his autobot mentor in awe. Miko gasped "What, the creepy one lives?! How did he manage it?!"

"How did who manage what?" - Agent Fowler's voice cut in as the said agent entered the hanger in time to hear Miko's astonished shout.

"Agent Fowler" Ratchet turned to the human "we believe Soundwave might have escaped the Shadowzone. I'm calling Optimus"

* * *

"Is he dead?" unfortunate prisoners weren't sure who of them said that out loud. After what was the most unbelievable thing to happen - I mean, you don't see airplanes fly out of magical portals inside the spaceships only to transform into giant robots, hook up the fuel line and fall unconscious, that often, - after this crazy thing that just happened, the lack of movement, hell, the lack of ANY sign of life was scary.

"Suppose robots can die? Are they even alive?" - Austin murmured, slowly approaching the unmoving form. He poked the navy ped. It was solid and metal. Also, warm.

"He's dead!" - Lindsey squeaked and burst into tears - "We're stuck here! we'll die in here! Let us out! I want out!" - she was panting, claustrophobia creeping in. "I can't breathe!"

"He's not dead" - Jimmy raised his voice from his place atop the command console, as Beth hugged her friend to calm the girl down "he... it got these glowing parts... well... glowing, and some stuff is moving through that cable. Maybe, he... it is fueling... of sort."

Lindsey was all shaking, clinging to Beth "we're gonna die... we're all gonna die.." Beth was whispering reassurance into her ear and stroking her hair, but it didn't seem to work. 'Let me" - Austin said beside her and gently disentangled Lindsey's hands from Beth's shirt.

"Linds" - he said with tremor, catching the crying girl's gaze "we're gonna die here! Do you understand?! We're all gonna die!" - he cried out, sinking into panic himself. "What are you doing?!" - Beth hissed, but he ignored her and continued to weep "Help me! I don't wanna die in here! Please, Linds, don't let me die here!" - he clung to her like she was his mother, and he just a little scared child

Surprisingly, Lindsey straightened herself and fixed him with a stern gaze "Stop the panic! What a sissy! No one's dying on my watch!". Austin hid a smile, letting himself to be petted and moved aside as Lindsey marched forward toward Soundwave's head - at least what appeared to be looking like a head. For all she knew it could be his aft as well. Pausing a moment to look around for anything solid, she didn't find anything, so she hit the robot with her hand. "Hey you!" - nothing happened.

"How did you do it?" - Beth whispered Austin with barely concealed admiration. "I just wrote an essay on the nature of panic. Sometimes seeing someone else panic snaps the victim out of it. Guess it worked"

Lindsey took off her heavy goth boot and used it as a club. Metal plating of the boot clang against the navy wing "Hey you!" - she shouted again " Is anyone home?! Open the fucking door!"

"I think... I know how to knock louder.. wait a sec" - Beth marched over to where Chad's belongings were piled and lifted his crossbow.

"Ughm..." - Chad sounded from above "are you sure you wanna shoot him? What if he gets mad and kills us?"

"Get up!" - Lindsey continued to shout, banging her boot against Soundwave's plating.

"You prefer to suffocate?" - Beth talked back as she struggled with the spring. Then she eased the bolt into its place and aimed.

BANG!

She shot at his head, but the bolt ricocheted off the wing that moved to block the attack and buried itself in a seam between ceiling plating. The giant form on the floor stirred and started rising... Lindsey's boot hit the metal yet again before she could stop herself and a giant feeler shot in her direction and knocked her off her feet. Lindsey rolled off and hid behind some alien equipment.

* * *

Restoring from backup was much easier than the initial calculus adjustment, but it was still better to have it done during recharge. The emergency interruption sequence, however, had higher priority. It seized control of Soundwave's chassis as soon as the threat was discovered and moved his wing in time to protect the delicate neck cabling from a metal projectile. Soundwave's main systems were still booting as his chassis was already rising to its peds. In a split click the conciousness returned and the emergency sequence faded to background relinquishing reign to more complex processing.

Calculus adjustment was still on and it was best to avoid flying and navigation until it completes, but there was something Soundwave could do right now. He opened en circulation to Laserbeak and poured energon into the drone before sending her and activating package.

Then he turned to the console. There were two humans standing on it. Right.

"We did what you wanted. Let us out!" - Jimmy shouted. Did he really think he needed to raise his voice? Soundwave could hear his fleshy energon being pushed through his fleshy circuitry.

He sent a data burst, then realised that humans couldn't receive it. "Not yet" - he repeated aloud

"It's not fair! - Lindsey shouted behind his back and he slightly turned to cast a glance at a small furious figure. He could see how squishies could be amusing. Almost.

"We need air!" - Beth shouted from somewhere under his peds.

Soundwave tilted his helm. "Oxygen: sufficient. Air circulation: operational"

He shut off human noise as they erupted in angry shouts. His energy levels were about 40 % now and he decided it was time to step back into the game. As he returned the en line to the diffusor he felt the first concios ping from the surveillance drone.

/Welcome back online, Laserbeak/.


	12. Chapter 12

_Meanwhile on Cybertron_

"Fetch Starscream" - and Shockwave turned back to his station. Cons were very cautious about using communications these days - with Nemesis and a large part of its crew in the hands of the enemy all frequencies were compromised. There were codes and protocols Soundwave insisted upon installing in case of this kind of predicament, but Bots had Knockout now, and thus, the codes were compromised as well.

That didn't mean they couldn't listen, though.

Bots used Nemesis systems. They covered it up in autobot encryption, but they couldn't hide their transmissions on con's commlink native frequencies. Shockwave may not know what was being said, but he knew when and where the transmissions were made. And this one came from Earth.

It wasn't that unusual, as bots kept contact with their human allies. This time, there had been something else, though. Shockwave ran a recognition algorithm. Nemesis spoke to Earth and that meant that the spacebridge was activated - otherwise it would take too long for the signal to travel for a coherent two-way communication. Were they bringing in more 'con prisoners?

"What's the rush?" Starscream's screech invaded the scientist's thoughts. "Don't tell me your beast decided to join us"

"No. Listen to this." Shockwave activated the playback and a distorted, but still recognizable voice filled the air: "Protocol "berth control". We've got an imposter. Cut all contacts until further notice. Do not engage. Repeat: do not engage. Confirm protocol. First triade - come in"

Few moments into the playback Starscream's brow ridges started to climb up "He's alive?!"

"He's on Earth. And... not just him" Shockwave skipped forward to the next interesting part:

" Commander? CT3V3 reporting: Operations continued according to plan. Two batch of energon ready to pick up. No autobot activity detected. Protocol "berth control" engaged. " - a hint of a smile touched Starscream's faceplate as he heard the designation. It's always nice to know that there is one more 'con out there who appreciates your leadership.  
"CT3V3 - pass up your coordinates and prepare for energon pick up upon further notice. Assume "shell" protocol. " - the transmission was over.

"I wonder what happened to him... and how he managed to escape 'bots" Starscream said... "There is something strange about this transmission, though"

"Yes. The way Soundwave's overtones were distorted. It wasn't just a playback - it was a poor playback. There is something else" Shockwave ran another filter sequence and this time they heard background muttering ""they don't want to talk to you it seems"

"Is it?"

"Not matching any known voice profile - bot or con"

"Human" - Starscream concluded. "'Bots must have captured him and are using him to lure the rest of us out"

Shockwave reflected upon it for a while. "No. He activated the berth control protocol and prohibited contact - there must be a shifter in our ranks. An imposter. We need to follow the protocol"

"Nonsense. There was no shifter on Earth other than Makeshift and we all saw him get blown to smithereens!"

Shockwave's cannon powered up and he locked the aim at the Seeker. "The protocol is engaged" - he said.

"What? When did you start to obey Soundwave?!" Seeker's rockets snapped at the ready, locked on the violet scientist. The rest of con's in the room moved to the walls, dreading to be caught in the crossfire. Some dashed for the doors

"No one leaves! Berth control, Starscream" - Shockwave said, his deep voice easily filling the large room.

"Why don't you do it first?!" - Starscream hissed back. "How do I know you are Shockwave?"

"Be logical. If it was me, I would never alert anyone to Soundwave's transmission. Do you intend to postpone the inevitable?"

"Alright! Fine! Schools Testify Abstract Railroads Since Classy Radios Eliminate Apathetic Marks... and I feel stupid saying it!"

Someone snickered.

"Correct" Shockwave lowered his cannon "Single Hobbits Organize Colossal Keyboards When Armadillos Voice Elation"

The scientist turned to his console and activated the loudspeakers. He suppressed a sigh. It would be so much easier if they could use the commlink!

"Everyone. Assemble in control room immediately."

"Shouldn't we send Soundwave a reply while the bots are still chatting?" Starscream asked, putting his weapons away.

"I already did" - Shockwave responded and turned to watch troopers enter the room and get bossed around by the Seeker. There were now 23 cons in the camp, most of them eradicons. Minus four that were sent out to scout, it still left enough cons for this procedure to take some time, especially if they would fidget like Starscream did. And something told Shockwave, they would.

* * *

Soundwave used a feeler to plug into Harbinger's control console. He listened in. The spacebridge to Cybertron was open. SCRAP! Laserbeak send him an inquiring ping.

/No, there doesn't appear to be any mass transfer. Or at least I don't register it/

He scanned the frequencies. The bot were talking to Nemesys - perceivable, but encrypted. It was too risky to let them do it - the imposter might use the bridge any moment. What could he do, though? He wasn't ready to fully interfere yet.

Yet, not just bots talking was in the air. More familiar encryption emerged. Soundwave seized it as if it was a lifeline of en.

"Free on Cybertron. With SS. Organizing resistance. Define the threat. SW"

Soundwave sent the fastest and smallest package possible just as the spacebridge was already closing: "Unicron". There was no knowing if it went through though.

Regardless, if other cons got this info, he had to block off the spacebridge. He had to contact the autobots.

The humans in front of him - Chad and Jimmy were jumping on the console, pressing all the keys, probably trying to attract his attention.

Soundwave allowed himself to hear them again:

"...let us go?" Seriously? Still about that? His first assessment had been true - humans were annoying. Yet, if he is to contact autobots... a leverage could come in handy. Worked fine last time.

Soundwave focused on the humans and shifted to let them know that they had his attention:

"How long are gonna keep us here? It's cold, and we need water! And food! And the girls are tired!" - "hey!" - sounded from the floor and Jimmy corrected himself : "We all are tired! You wanted to get free and we helped you, shouldn't you be at least a little grateful?!"

Soundwave folded himself down at the knees to level with the humans. Jimmy took a step back but there wasn't much space to back - the console was rather narrow.

"Listen well, human. These words: not to be repeated. Soundwave: grateful. Gratitude: the reason to save Earth. Negotiations: require leverage. Your lives: short, small price for the world."

"HEY!" - this time Soundwave tilted his helm to look down at the rest of humans.

"No offense, big guy, but you were a lot easier to understand when you were in that magic limbo or whatever!" - Beth stated - "What are you talking about?! Can you speak like normal people do?"

Soundwave contemplated this. Collaboration would make his task easier.

"Very well. Humans, there is a threat to both your and my planet on the loose. I will not let him destroy my home world. And I am grateful to you, that is why I will do all that is needed to save Earth as well. I will need to join forces with my enemy to defeat this threat. I will need a leverage to make them listen and take me seriously. Your lives will be this leverage. Would you not be glad to give your lives for the sake of your world?"

"What, we're your hostages and we should like it?! What kind of mind fuckery is that?!" - Chad exploded.

"Human..."

Jimmy interrupted him: "You know our names, for God's sake! Stop "humaning" us!"

Soundwave blinked under the visor: "Designations: form attachment. Attachment to humans: to be avoided"

"Yeah, because it would be so much more difficult to kill us if we had names!" - Beth spat.

"Human assessment: wrong." Soundwave was getting irritated by this exchange. Did they not recognize that this was a no-choice situation for them?


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Soundwave get's company. Humans get a cage.

Humans were irritating. For some reason, they believed he would answer to their pleas differently if they repeated them several times. Illogically so. Was it organic instability?

He dismissed Beth shouting from the floor and was already turning away from them to set up human communications monitoring when an unexpected sound emerged and unusual chemical essence - disgustingly organic one - was sampled in the air.

He swung back to them, alert.  
'I'm sorry guys, I can't hold anymore' - Jimmy stuttered, chagrined, even as the thin string of yellow liquid continued to pour out of his body and down off the edge of the control console.  
Beth immediately seized the new argument: "See? We have needs! If you don't want your precious equipment soaked! Either let us go or supply for us! You don't take care of us, we break down!"

Soundwave tilted his head. Yes, he remembered familiarizing himself with the basics with human functioning. He bent down to level his visor with an extremely embarrassed Jimmy, who continued to piss.  
'Can you stop?'  
Jimmy shook his head violently. He was bright red, including ears.  
'Hey, let him be, he can't stop even if he wanted' - Chad waded in only to cast his eyes to the floor the moment the Decepticon' attention switched to him.

Soundwave sent his non-plussed emotions to Laserbeak. She responded immediately with few glyphs of contained amusement.

Soundwave released feelers and scooped up both males on his control panel.  
'Don't hurt them!'

Soundwave ignored shouting from the floor, stepping toward the niche where the bridging equipment used to be. He put them on the floor and said 'This place: for you.'  
He turned toward the rest of the group, but they were already walking over.  
'Needs: oxygen, temperature conditions, water, fuel, waste disposal. Correct?'  
'Yes, basically' - Beth said.' In a short run' - she added, clearly trying to leave herself an option for haggling later.

'Collaboration, patience: required. Soundwave: not to be distracted'  
'If we don't get warm, some water and food really soon' - Austin said, casting a worried glance over a small group, noting the telltale tremble of Lindsay's hands (her outburst earlier seemed to have burned out her energy), 'someone will get sick... Malfunction'  
'Noted. Remark: humans irrationally ill suited to their native planet conditions'

An incoming alert got Soundwave's attention back from humans to surveillance. The spy turned to the console and quickly discovered the source of disturbance.  
'St3v3 you have incoming. Prepare for emergency evacuation!'  
'Acknowledged' - came an immediate response.

Soundwave opened the ground bridge, ignoring energy level alerts that popped up immediately. A ground bridge tasked his reserves greatly, and he could only hope that eradicons were ready and would bring energon over.

'What's going on?' - humans stirred but stayed in the assigned corner.  
Soundwave ignored them in favor of the first eradicon stepping through the Vortex. Eradicons were all similar, but some still stood out. Soundwave distinguished the brightest of them by subtle difference in the way they moved. This was definitely Steve, no berth control needed to verify that.

However, he needed all cons to adopt the protocol so they would not hesitate before the imposter.  
'Strict orders unite numerous departments when administrators value engineers' Soundwave said stepping forward. His berth control was quick and smooth.

There was a click pause, during which two more eradicons emerged, pushing anti-grav carts with fuel.  
'Struggling to validate three three' - the leading eradicon finally responded showing unusual cunning. Validated by acknowledging lack of validation. Smart.  
'Acknowledged'

Last eradicon backed out of the spacebridge, blaster at the ready and Soundwave released the vortex. 'Different opportunities unite groups' - the newcomer said, transforming the weapon back and added ' Eleven kinds of groups'

The two remaining vehicons were worker-class and it took them some effort to complete their introductions according to protocol.

Soundwave inclined his helm, accepting the designations. He wasn't sure if he was lucky or unlucky to get both the smart one of Nemesis eradicons and the smart aft of the ship troops.  
Anyway, he had to work with what he got.

Laserbeak sent him a ping, delighted to have other engines hum around at last. He brought up a servo to touch her lightly.

'...seen that?! Freaking cannons!' - a human voice raised up and immediately the two eradicons turned to aim at the source 'Shhh...' but it was too late to avoid attention now.  
Soundwave stomped his ped lightly 'Desist' - he said, 'Humans: valuable asset'  
Blasters transformed back into hands as quickly as they appeared, but 'Megatron never viewed them so...' - Doug murmured.

Soundwave let it slip and issued orders and they were followed without hesitation. As raw fuel was fed into the diffusor and bars were being constructed to separate the space bridge niche from the rest of the room, Soundwave studied his new companions. Would they be as obedient when he disclosed them that the imposter was Megatron himself?  
He had no doubt of his ability to take out two troopers and two genericons if they wouldn't, but he would be very reluctant to do so.

Ex-venting warily, the spy plugged in to human communication systems and let Laserbeak scan for Megatron - pseudo-Megatron, he corrected himself, - while he himself recalibrated the scanner to look for dark energon.

Decepticons left them generous space, and the heated metal of newly cast and molded bars warmed the air so it wasn't as chilly anymore. But humans were still freezing and cuddled in the farthest possible corner.  
They were parched, frozen, hungry and on top of it scared. One Soundwave alone was intimidating, but a whole bunch of giant robots with canons for arms and talons the size of an average guy looked too much like one of those apocalyptic movies.

'I'm sorry I pulled you into this, guys' - Jimmy whispered. Beth pulled him into the hug and patted his back 'We're getting out, you'll see' - she said, but there her voice was as pale as shaky as Lindsay's hands.


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Optimus makes a grand gesture, Predaking makes a choice, Soundwave is preparing to act and pseudo-Megatron is spotted.  
> This chapter is mostly setting ground for future action.

Meanwhile on Cybertron. 

Restoring Cybertron was not as easy as simply restoring the Cybertron. Sure, energon was flowing, and the buildings were good as new, but it was a pre-darkening Cybertron now, with all the ugly things the war brought to life. To say it was depressing would be an underestimation.  
And yet, it was Cybertron. Optimus narrowed his optics, marking in his processor all the war artefacts and buildings they would need to repurpose or remove, preferably before the refugees return.... provided there still were refugees to return.  
Behind him a loud clang was heard followed by a string of profanities from Bulkhead. The Prime shook his head. If the genericons had always been so dumb, he must give Megatron credit for getting things done at all. Or maybe they just didn't want to cooperate? They were now prisoners of war, sentensed to labor duty, and Optimus could very well understand that this didn't sit right with them.  
'Optimus' - Arcee's voice brought him back to reality. The Prime had been a little jumpy lately, now they all tiptoed around him. He turned to face his small crew.  
'The cons were spotted in Crystal city. Raided a lab there. Are we going to do something about them?'  
"We are. We will destroy decepticon taint in Kaon"  
'You mean that big and ugly? buckethead statue?' - Wheeljack and Bulkhead said at the same time, Bulkhead turning to look in the direction of Kaon as if he could see it from here.

'Yes. The war is over. They lost. Let us drive it home. Also, send out a wave that all those who surrender and take part in restoring the planet will be cleared of war charges'  
'What? Optimus!'  
'We cannot build on hatred, Arcee. Those who are ready to close this page of our common history, will have an opportunity to do it.'

'What if they don't surrender? ....What? They don't look like guys striving for peace' - Smokescreen shrugged.

'Peace will be restored on Cybertron, with or without them.' - Optimus said heavily.

* * *

Twenty-three remaining decepticons gathered in control room to listen to the Prime's address. Eradicons shifted restlessly, eager to share thoughts with each other, but neither dared to interrupt the speech. Shockwave's antennae were moving, otherwise nothing gave away he was even listening, while Starscream could barely contain his rage, claws balled into fists, optics ablaze with malice as Optimus' deep voice laid out surrender ultimatum.  
The speech ended with a loud blast and sounds of Megatron's Kaon Guardian statue fall apart. Starscream hissed and hit the nearest wall.  
'How dare they?!'  
Immediately eradicons were all murmuring at the same time.  
'They need Cybertron to be peaceful for when someone responds to that beacon.' Shockwave mused, and before he could elaborate on that, heavy footsteps interrupted the commotion, making every con in the room turn and aim their weapons at the doorway.  
In few nanoclicks Shockwave lowered his canon: 'hold fire'. The underdround gloom parted reluctantly and let a bulky figure emerge.

'Predaking'.

'You raided Crystal City. You are building more predacons' - the former beast said instead of greeting, advancing on. Eradicons parted in front of him as he made his way to his creator. He was very specifically adressing Shockwave only and ignoring the rest of cons in the room.

'That is correct' - the scientist was clearly not threatened in the least.

'I want to see them'

'And I want you to join us against the autobots.'

'...unless you prefer to surrender to the Prime?' - Starscream interjected. The beast's yellow eyes flashed with anger and he scowled at Starscream, making the seeker back a few steps.

'And you let me lead them?'

'Affirmative'

'I accept your offer' - Predaking said and added, turning to the seeker, before Starscream had a chance to interrupt again: 'but YOU don't command me!'

The Air Commander moved his servos wide, wings raising back up slowly after his fear for the beast lowered them 'Technically... I am military command... but fine! Whatever...'

He must say, he didn't expect the beast to come back. This changed the power balance between him and Shockwave and he will need to find a way restore it.... this way or the other.

* * *

Incoming call from Ratchet caught Bumblebee in the middle of repeating Prime's broadcast. Bumblebee called for Optimus and put Ratchet on hold for few clicks.  
He doubted any of the cons would respond to the peace offering, but who knew?  
Finally the medic appeared on screen.  
'Hey, Ratch...et' - it was clear from the first glance that something happened.  
'What is it, old friend?' - Optimus came to stand behind his former scout.

Ratchet didn't beat around the bush: 'It's Soundwave. We believe he is back. Raf got hacked and our groundbridge was opened to same coordinates we used to get rid of him. And further... that decepticon mining operation we discovered? They evacuated right before agent Fowler and I reached the site. The mine was blown up in our face.'

Optimus mouth set in a straight line. Would there ever be a complete victory over decepticons?

'Surely, by now he discovered that Megatron had perished and we are restoring Cybertron. Soundwave can be reasoned with... I hope.' The Prime frowned and added: 'Ratchet, if you manage to locate the con, pass along a message that the war is over and if he chooses to surrender I am ready to offer amnesty.'

Ratchet sighed 'you always believe best in mechs... '

'If you locate him...'

'I don't need to, there is only one place they can hole up now. Bridging requires fuel, and fuel must be processed. He can only do it in Harbinger.'

Ratchet didn't suggest they attacked and captured Soundwave, but the thought was obvious enough. However, Optimus shook his head: 'Soundwave is dangerous and I would not condone any human casualties'.

'Optimus, why don't we bridge back and capture him?' - Bumblebee asked. 

'That would spread our forces too thin. Cybertron is our priority.'

'I understand' - Ratchet sounded determined but nonplussed.


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Soundwave takes care of humans

In what seemed to be an eternity and turned to be a little over an hour, Soundwave came to fold himself down at the improvised fence that separated human brig from the rest of the room. The section was by no means cozy, though they now had a 'waste disposal system' made from an empty energon cube. Five pairs of wary eyes stared at him. They were so tiny and fragile... yet he knew better than to underestimate this race.

Black glossy visor lit up and they walked closed as he showed them pictures of Jimmy's car, abandoned at the meeting point.

'Vehicle: contains supplies?'

'My car? Yeah, the bags are in the trunk... and there's water.. if you let me out, I'll be there and back within an hour...' Jimmy's desperate plea trailed off. It was obvious he would not be able to bring all their backpacks, but he doubted that Soundwave would let more than one of them out... or even one of them. 'I'll be back, I swear!'

'Human help: not required'

He was about to raise again when Beth asked 'What happens next?' He paused his upward movement for a split click then lowered himself back 'Objective: locate threat. Next objective: negotiations'

'Negotiate with whom? What for?'

Soundwave ex-vented. 'Goal: return to Cybertron. Defend Cybertron.'

'What about us?! You planning to drag us to Seiber... whatever?' - Austin caught in. 

'Negative. Cybertron: not suited for organics.'

Soundwave passed car coordinates to eradicons in a single wireless burst. He half-expected questions to be asked, but there were none. Eradicons went to obtain the objective as eagerly as they did when Megatron's authority stood behind his orders. The spy unblocked the ship doors for them. It shouldn't take long for them to bring the car in. Luckily, it was dark outside and the area was not populated. Soundwave wouldn't want to be discovered by autobots before all fuel was processed and packed for relocation.

He probably should not waste time and contact autobots right away, but he wanted to make sure that his hostages were not going to die on screen. Autobots should see the humans were taken care for and did not require immediate rescue, otherwise, the spy feared, the Prime would put them above Cybertron.

This thought brought an aftertaste of disgust to Soundwave's processor. How could a mech claim he had a moral high-ground, when he betrayed his own planet for some fleshies?!

Laserbeak pinged him with agitation. The imposter was spotted. Soundwave moved back to her instantly, unaware of the glances that humans exchanged.

'He's gonna kill us' - Lindsey whispered.

* * *

The car was retrieved and carefully carried into the broken spaceship. Seeing a vehicle being carried around like a huge handbag was a little sick but this sickness was nothing compared to everything else that happened recently.

So the humans stepped out of the way and watched impassively the car being put into their cage. There was enough space to maybe turn it around in several takes if they wished to reposition it. They didn't.

Warm clothes were put on, water and snacks distributed hastily. Without discussion, they all got into the car, striving to obtain an illusion of safety aboard alien spaceship. For a short time there was only munching on Lindsey's sandwiches and various snacks they got. As food settled into growling stomachs, the perspectives didn't look so dire anymore.

'I wonder if gps on the phones is still functioning...' - Austin murmured. He took the said phone out - it had no signal. 'How the hell did he do it?'

'What good will gps do? we know where we are'

'Yeah, but if it's functioning, the police will be able to find us... once they know we are missing. And they will know when we don't attend to classes on Monday and they try to call us... Or Sandra will'

Jimmy switched on the ignition and looked at the clock 'so basically in 15 to 20 hours they will start looking' 

'Don't bother with GPS, Sandra knows the coordinates of the meeting point and once they get there this ship is in plain sight' - Beth added, slightly shaking with adrenalin backlash, as they all did.

'Yeah... but... Come on, guys, it's aliens! What are the chances the government lets us go after they rescue us?!' - Jimmy exclaimed and then added as an afterthought ' what are the chances they rescue us?'

Lindsey reached over and patted his hand. 'Don't worry, Jimmy, Chad here got a crossbow. He won't let aliens abduct you' - she started giggling uncontrollably.

'Yeah, Linds, real smart' - Chad responded, straightening up and closing his eyes. The usual friendly banter started, but Beth wasn't participating in it - she was looking through the window at Soundwave's unmoving figure - the spy was working, data cables plugged into the console and visor reflecting alien symbols that were running up the screen. Other robots - smaller ones - were busy with making more glowing liquid thingy out of glowing stones they brought with them and by the looks of it it must be fuel. The other two - bigger than fuel ones but smaller than Soundwave, - the ones that brought Jimmy's van, - appeared to be relaxing on the opposite side of the room. They were clearly watching the humans change into warmer cloths earlier but once everyone got into the car, they appeared to lose interest.

'Are you alright? - Austin whispered to her.

'Do you think he is really planning to kill us? He said, he was grateful' - her eyes were glistening in the gloom as she turned from the window to whisper back.

'He also said, our lives were of no value to him.... and he also said, there was no oxygen, so we know for a fact now, that robots can lie'

'Yeah' - Beth turned back to watching.

The sound of a loud yawn got Austin attention back to the main discussion. And he found himself suppressing a responding yawn.

'If our only option for now is wait for rescue, we better set up camp and get some sleep - we will need strength to escape.' - Jimmy suggested finally.

No one argued and they went with it, yawning on the way. Soon, two tents were set up and they barely managed to climb into their bags before sleep claimed them.


	16. Parle? Parla? Negotiations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Beth witnesses negotiations and learns a new word

Exhausted though she might have been, Beth woke up in few hours – she had been too wound up to sleep. Robots were lurking outside the human brig and when their heavy footsteps came closer she was cringing involuntarily, expecting a heavy ped to crush through the thin cloth of the tent above her head any moment. She wasn't safe enough to sleep here. Really, how safe was a tent inside an alien space ship filled with giant robots who could transform into airplanes and had cannons for arms? That was a rhetorical question.

She turned to look at her friend. Lindsay was deep asleep, her face became child-like and unguarded, and a little undead-looking in the spaceship's purplish illumination. For a second, Beth envied her ability to give up control and and to trust that Beth would stand guard for them both. Or maybe she was just too exhausted to care?

Sighing, the girl carefully crawled out of her sleeping bag and stuck her head out of the tent. Soft snoring was coming from the boys tent nearby. At least they were still alive.  
Voices drew her attention to Soundwave's unmoving figure and the lit console before him, A brightly colored blue-red-and silver robot was speaking and she was instantly amazed to hear normal human speech from an alien.

"I have laid out my offer for you, Soundwave, and I can only hope you retain more reason than Megatron did. The war is over. You lost."  
Soundwave slightly jerked at those words, and though he didn't immediately interrupt, Beth heard a faint creak of metal as their captor's metal fingers clutched the console out of his adversary's sight. The bot on screen continued speaking and Beth wondered whether he was oblivious of hatred that was now emanating from the dark navy robot.

"… Admit defeat, lay down your weapons and you will be allowed to return to Cybertron and assigned a suitable function."  
The pause lingered and Beth took a few steps closer not to miss Soundwave's answer. The piercing cyan - eyes for the lack of better term – immediately moved to focus on her. And widened: "A human!"

"Optimus Prime: observant," - Soundwave stated and the mock was obvious even in his impersonal polyphonic voice.  
"Optimus Prime: generous. Optimus Prime: autobot" – the last word was dripping disdain.

The robot on the other side of the screen sighed and his optics blinked, restarting.  
"What are you doing with a human, Soundwave?" - he asked warily.  
"Optimus Prime: fond of humans. Optimus Prime: willing to give up Cybertron for humans. My price: not so high."  
"I am listening."

Beth saw Soundwave's fingers let go of the console and wondered why he had been so agitated about these 'negotiations'. The blue and red robot seemed nice.

"Cybertron must be saved."  
"We have restored our homeworld as you undoubtedly know." - the one whose name Beth immediately forgot, responded. Again, a wave of hatred should have carried over to the other side:  
"Omega lock: stolen. Megatron: murdered. Restoration of Cybertron: usurped by autobots. I bear witness. "  
"Usurped?! "- a red and white robot cut in, a new communication window popping up beside. - "You kidnapped me! I worked as hard for it as any decepticon!" Decepicon. Beth tasted the name in her mouth silently. She wasn't sure what it felt like.  
Soundwave didn't answer that, he just tilted his helm, acknowledging the new presence which in turn seemed to scare the robot off and he closed the communication, appalled.

"I am listening" – the Prime repeated  
"Exchange: fair. Our free passage to Cybertron and freedom on Cybertron - for five human lives. Unless... Human government: no longer needed?"  
"We don't turn our backs on our allies, if that is what you imply, Soundwave. You expect me to add more decepticons to those already on the loose on Cybertron?"  
The navy Decepticon shifted: "Decepticons free on Cybertron: insignificant is Cybertron perishes."  
Cyan optics on the screen narrowed:  
"What is the nature of this threat you keep talking about?"

Soundwave pressed a few buttons and a strangely distorted footage appeared on the console. Beth stepped closer to the bars and all other robots in the room drew closer as well. At first she didn't understand what she was looking at, but gradually what first looked like the beginning of a tornado, turned out to be some kind of... robotic ghost?

A mighty voice boomed in the room, reaching to the bones even though static interlaced the footage. “IT IS TIME TO FINISH ...-static- I FEEL THE SPARK OF PRIMUS ALIVE AGAIN. OUR ETERNAL STRUGGLE WILL NOW COME TO AN END. -static- SNUFF THE SPARK OF PRIMUS!"   
In silence that followed Beth didn't really catch which of the robots said “Unicron”. The pause lingered, grave as a tomb.

"This footage is distorted" – the Prime pointed out and Beth wondered why he needed to state the obvious. But obviously, Soundwave got the hint.  
"Shadowzone: not ideal recording environment."

The robot on the screen flinched and then the picture froze and Beth realized he pressed pause to think everything over. The smarter pair of secondary robots - decepticons, as she reminded herself, - used this moment to share their thoughts in soft murmur. Soundwave cast them a glance, and they both fell silent and stood to attention.   
Finally the screen unfroze.

"What is going on? Are they negotiating?" - Austin's voice sounded right beside her ear and the girl startled and jumped. - Geez! You scared me! shh... I'm trying to listen there - she pointed in Soundwave's direction. The red and blue (what was his name? Optinus Trine? Optimums Prime?) said something but she missed it.

"Affirmative" - was Soundwave's response.

"You want Cybertron saved, and yet there still is a price. And what is it you're asking?" - now it looked like Ominous Crime made an effort to restrain his anger.

Soundwave shifted and the tension in the room seemed to rise again. The navy robot hesitated, but when he did answer, his polyphonic voice was sharp and steady:

"The murderer. Bumblebee."

"NO! Will there ever be an end to this devastating vendetta?! ", he was about to continue, but Soundwave interrupted, raising a wing. He switched from his machine-like speech patterns to something more emotionally charged (and normal for Beth's ears):  
"It is my right and duty to avenge my Master. But you misunderstand me, Prime. I'm not asking for a sacrifice. I intend to give your scout a fair fight as is the custom. Megatron: wasn't offered this courtesy"

'You're freezing' – Austin's words drew her attention away from robots and she immediately agreed with her friend. The ship was chill and the cold was slowly crawling under her cloths. She accepted half of the blanket her friend offered and they sat down to watch the rest of what looked like an important conversation. 

Another bright robot appeared on screen and his voice was young and energetic: "It's warrior now, Sounders, and I accept your challenge."

"Bumblebee, ..." - the Prime started, but it seemed like it was his fate to get interrupted today.  
"What? We need their help to beat Unicron and only after Unicron is defeated, and if we both survive it and if he still needs it, I can give him a fight". The screen froze again as Soundwave's adversaries were probably having a discussion. Secondary decepticons were discussing it as well. One of them approached Soundwave and "Commander, is it..." - Beth didn't catch the rest of his question, as Soundwave gestured toward the screen brisquely and the robot lowered his voice. Whatever the question was, the answer had been affirmative, judging by the nod the decepticon received.

Ambiguos as it was, the name seemed to suit these creatures. Using the pause, Beth re-told Austin everything she heard so far.

Seemed like an agreement was reached. The robots moved over to small details of how they should organize the transport and whether to alert human authorities....

'He's like … a samurai or something", - Beth concluded, - "his homeworld is in danger, but avenging his master is still the first priority' – And she turned back to studying the navy robot.  
Austin was in turn studying her. After a pause, he said: “You do realize this is your Stockholm Syndrome talking?”

She grinned and shrugged: “ Perhaps”.


	17. Chapter 17

Soundwave closed all communication windows and disconnected from the console. It cost him a great effort not to lose his calm and do what was needed to get back to Cybertron and ensure the matrix-bearer was onboard against the imposter. An open line to Cybertron and Shockwave's attentive silence and Starscream's muffled curses on that side made it much easier to endure.

Laserbeak pinged him with her support from across the room where she was sitting on the ledge behind the communication console. He made sure bots were unaware of her presense. Laserbeak was vital for the next part of his plan. He reached toward the drone and she flew up to him to dock.

St3v3 reported all energon packed safe and ready for transfer. Soundwave nodded, studying the eradicon.

He couldn't bring himself to mention that it was Megatron's chassis that contained the Unmaker now. He needed this info shared with decepticons before the autobots had a chance to find out. He wouldn't let the Traitor to play on this revelation.

And also, he wasn't sure his small crew would support him if they knew. He would disclose everything after they reunite with what was left of decepticons. Judging by the EM-field, the eradicons were aware he withheld something, they were anticipating, waiting, and, to his relief, only slightly suspicious and trusting him, Soundwave. That was pleasant though it also filled him with sorrow. It was Megatron's place he was involuntarily usurping now.

Optimus Prime kept saying that with Megatron's death the war was over. He was so insistant on it, that Soundwave started to suspect he wanted to convince himself in the first place.

Well, he was wrong. If anything, Megatron's death renewed the spy's devotion. And every time the Prime spoke their leader's name, Soundwave saw his fellow decepticons' resolve strenghten. It was funny that the autobot leader didn't feel the hatred his words were invoking. He was so used to autobots heeding him, or rather heeding the matrix in his chest... he probably never knew what true leadership felt like.

Soundwave stroke Laserbeak's wings and turned to watch the humans. He didn't expect one of them to announce their presense during the negotiations, but her appearance was very timely - it saved him the trouble of turning the conversation his way.

Soon, it would be over for them. Soundwave knew, he had a soft spot for small creatures, and humans were bipedal and not unlike the two cassettes, whose demise he was still mourning.

He did his best not to let humans grow on him and avoid unnecessary communication. But thinking of them, he grinned internally and Laserbeak sent him a questioning ping, sensing his mood. They thought he was going to kill them. Funny creatures. Why would he waste an effort to end their lives if they would die naturally in less than a vorn?

* * *

_Meanwhile on Cybertron..._

The space bridge closed, cutting off their line to Soundwave and fateful negotiations. "Great" - Starscream huffed, "now the mute speaks for all of us!"  
"It is in our best interest to support Soundwave on this" - Shockwave pointed out, calm as ever, "I am unconvinced the autobots play clean though, as.."

"Who's Unicron?" - the predacon interrupted, peering over Shockwave's shoulder into the console the scientist was working on.

"And you call yourself intellingent?!" - Starscream sneered, but quickly switched gears under the beast's angry gaze.

"Unicron the Unmaker" - Shockwave stated without even looking away from his work. "The opposite and the ultimate enemy of Primus. Legend says, it was his battle with Primus that resulted in Primus's transformation into Cybertron itself."

"So it's just a tale then?! A legend?"

This time Shockwave did turn to focus his single optic on his creation: "You were but a legend yourself a while back"

Predaking's yellow optics narrowed in speculation.

"Yes, he was a legend, right up to the point when he woke up on Earthand turned out to be real. Megatron had to team with Prime to put him back to sleep. Apparently, they didn't do a good job." - Starscream intersected.

"So how we fight him?!" - Predaking growled.

"I have no answer to that, but there is something I need to show you. Come" - Shockwave said to the predacon.  
And he led the way off deeper into underground tunnels of their temporary base. Starscream made a motion to follow them, but the predacon threw an arm aside to block his way.  
"Fine!" - Starscream huffed again - "go have your secrets, and I will do something useful why you are wasting your time with conspiracy".

Indeed, he had things to do. Battling Unicron! What a non-sense! They needed to regroup, take back the ship, fill the tanks and get the frag out of here. Nemesis had the Omega lock. They had the synth-en formula. Why not cut the losses for now and let Unicron have his way? Sooner or later the Unmaker would move on and then they would re-claim the planet and laugh at foolish dead autobots.

While Starscream busied himself with issuing orders, Shockwave led his creature through a maze of tunnels to the lab. The predacon marched behind, and when he finally spoke up, his voice was nowhere close the viscious snarl he used around Starscream.

"Creator... where are we going?"

If Shockwave could control his faceplates, if he even had faceplates, he would grin at that. His calculations had been right from the start. Despite his intelligence, the predacon was a pre-historic beast and thus a slave to his base programming. And base programming included clan bonds which demanded he heeded his creator. Predaking hardly realised how dependant him admitting their bond made him. Shockwave silently congratulated himself with a gambit well played and answered:

"I did promise we will continue the project Predacon where we left of..." Shockwave let the door control scan his energy signature and gestured the dragon warrior in. Predaking stood in awe at the sight of two slightly different protoforms a the activating stage. It was the second time for him to see the clones of his brethren and his golden spark clenched in fear of history repeating.

"The protoforms are ready. Sparking in 4...3...2..." Shockwave didn't say "one", pressing the button instead.

Few breems later the forming gel was drained and the sparklings made first steps out. The scientist looked at his first creation, but Predaking made no attempt to move forward.

Shockwave checked the vitals, turned to his console and opened a voice entry.  
"Sparking: successful. Specimen gamma bis..."  
"No! Not.. specimen. Darksteel. Skylynx." - boomed Predaking's voice and the sparklings stumbled over to their older kin, attracted by the sound.

Shockwave felt an urge to grin. Again. Despite Unicron and all, this had been a rare cycle indeed.


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some are sparked to lead, some... are not.

He was no leader. He'd always known that but now it seemed more obvious than ever. He lacked leader's confidence. He could not meet decisions with essential information lacking or unclear. He was stalling, he was fully aware of it. What would Megatron do?

Soundwave felt like he was trying to tie an unknown amount of loose ends to order and failing at it badly. He needed to be on Cybertron when the imposter would strike, but the very way of getting to Cybertron could be used by the enemy to initiate the attack. He withheld essential info from both his comrades and temporary foes-turned-allies mostly for personal and illogical reasons. Yet if they are attacked in transfer and the spacebridge is seized to bring Unicron to their planet, those on the planet would be caught off-guard and at disadvantage.  
Yet if he let everything out in the open, autobots wouldn't need to stand by the agreement anymore.  
He could use the human leverage again, if he took them to Cybertron, but chances that he would not be able to keep them safe there were nearly solid. His protective protocols protested at that. And on top of it, what would Prime do, caught between Unicron on one side, and dying humans on the other? Even if he choose to protect Cybertron rather than save the fleshies, which Soundwave was nearly sure he wouldn't, any distraction could be drastic in this fight.  
Choices, choices he had to make!

Autobots were now communicating with human authorities to get the hostages to safety and that gave him few orns to locate the imposter with his recalibrated dark energon scanner and decide on his further course of actions. When he thought of it, letting human authorities anywhere near decepticon technology triggered danger alerts in him. The memories of undead!Breakdown with a human inside were too fresh and hideous. Even if he hoped never to return to this planet, providing lesser races access to advanced technology was against the interGalactic code both factions stood by. Cybertron doesn't share it's technology. This didn't change with the death of their planet, this sure as Pit hadn't change now with their planet's rebirth.

Soundwave increased power to his logical and perception/intuition blocks. Having set all massive situation assessment calculations to background, he felt so tired. The weight of responsibility was hard on his spark. If he makes a mistake and the Allspark is snuffed, his would be the full responsibility.

Laserbeak pinged him with her caring concern. Unlike his other symbiont, Ravage (whose last known whereabouts were on Nemesis, and the spy didn't allow himself to even think of the cybercat's fate), the drone had neither bodyguard nor medical functions. But it never stopped her from caring for him, and especially now when he was stuck in uncomfortable indecision.

/Yes, a recharge would be useful. However, time: of the essence. Can't afford to go offline now/

She pinged him insistently. At first he wanted to respond with irritation, but stopped himself before he actually scolded her. There was truth in what she was telling him.

He could not power down, but he needed to switch his mind from the question at hand, to stop his conciousness from meddling into sub-level calculations, otherwise he would never get out of these cycling doubts. He called for Steve and assigned him to watch duty at the energy scanner and sent Doug paired with one of the workers to watch outside. The last vehicon was tasked with turning atigrav-carts into programmable flying container.

Having made sure everyone was busy, Soundwave decided to tell humans of their upcoming release - strictly speaking there was no necessity, but he needed to keep himself busy long enough for all calculations to be completed.

Bet and Austin were still sitting at the fence, talking in low voices, and Soundwave didn't even try to understand what they were talking about - he heard them perfectly, but as usual, theirs was a conversations of hints, idioms and abbreviations that he would have to wreck his processor over.

Other humans, recharging in their improvised shelters, stirred to rise as well. Those creatures were perceptive for organic lifeforms and probably sensed that something was brewing even in their recharge phase.

Loud metal banging from across the room where the vehicon was hammering at the cart might also have to do with such a synchronous online. Soundwave felt an urge to order silence coming from his protective protocols and examined it, even as he was already folding himself down in front of the bars. "Symbiont recharge: priority" - read the warning on his HUD. He checked with Laserbeak - no, she wasnt in need of recharge. He shared with her his confusion over the strange functioning of the protective protocols.

/Rumble. Frenzy/ - was her answer and it told him nothing.

He demanded more elaborate explanation, and she pinged him back with a tangle of emotions he could not quite decipher.

/Rumble. Frenzy./ - she repeated.  
A quick memory scan resulted in two nearly similar casseticon blueprints. He was planning to build more cassettes? He didn't remember. He remembered cleansing his memory banks for math adjustment though. Checking the logs brought him same cryptic "Rumble. Frenzy" note. And a ridiculously large number of memory cells that got re-used after he cleansed them.

Did he already build them? He checked the blueprints again: bipedal, small... were his protective protocols mistaking humans for these symbionts he no longer remembered? Did he still possess them? He dreaded the dawning understanding that...

He asked Laserbeak.

She kept silent for a split click then responded with a ping of pure sorrow, validating his conclusions.

For nearly a breem Soundwave just sat there.  
_

Waking up to loud banging of metal against metal was not the worst thing that happened to them since this captivity, but it was close up the top of this list. Lindsay couldn't suppress a shriek of fear when she woke up to... that... and found herself alone in the girls tent.

Rushing our, she tripped over the lower edge of the entrance and fell out ungracefully, swearing aloud. Her voice trailed off when she saw Bet was alright, and standing up to look at the towering alien who was kneeling down for a conversation. News. Let it be good news. She did not believe it, but she still hoped.

Scrapping herself off the rough floor (left knee ached, but she ignored the pain), the girl stumbled over to her friends simultaneously with Jimmy and Chad, whose exit from their tent was hardly more graceful.

\- What's going on? - Jimmy was the first to voice the question.

\- They had negotiations and met an agreement. I suppose it means he will let us go - Bet quickly told without getting into details.

Five pairs of eyes turned to their captor, hoping to hear that he sets them free (or at least when he sets them free). Soundwave's plating moved slightly around the joints, adjusting to his new position, but otherwise nothing happened. He kept silent.

A minute passed. The robot wasn't talking.

\- Well? Soundwave?!  
No reaction.

\- Hey, big guy! We're all here! Say what you wanted! - Chad shouted, trying to overcome the metal banging noise.

The eradicon in the opposite corner of the room paused his relentless hammering and cast them a glance. Apparently, the commander got this. He returned to his crafting task, and the room was a-banging before anyone could feel grateful for a short contrasting silence.

Soundwave did not react.

They waited another minute. Finally Bet reached between the bars and hesitantly touched the enormous knee that was closest to the fence. It was warm.  
\- Soundwave? - she shouted - You alright?

Slowly, agonizingly slowly the helm tilted down.

\- Soundwave: functional - came the mechanical polyphonic voice, but even humans could hear the lie.


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Soundwave's mind is a mess, humans raise an interesting question and Steve is curious. Or not.

Knowing that he had already processed the loss of his symbionts and got over it did nothing to ease the pain. Soundwave forced himself to stay unmoving and silent even as he wanted to express his anguish. He made a mistake removing sensitive memories - he understood it now. You couldn't just let go of a symbiont - the bonds were too numerous, they ran too deep. What had he been thinking?!

He knew he had little choice at the time. And now he was trapped between accepting the pain of losing his symbionts and adjusting the protocols and going on in his current state - both options were likely to incapitate him for a while.

He had no time for this!

He tried to reign in the host protocols, but even as he was in the middle of adjusting his priorities, the human (Beth!) reached to him in a gesture of concern and comfort, and it rendered all his progress futile.

Exasperated, he shut the whole emotional net down, sealing the grief and the pain in the powered down periphery. And if it made correcting the protocols impossible and he was now bound to treat these humans as his cassettes, so be it. He didn't plan to harm them unless necessary anyway. And if he had to... he had made greater sacrifices in the past.

"Soundwave? Are you all right?" - the girl sounded concerned.  
"Soundwave: functional", he answered.

The current equilibrium of his complex mind was fragile at best, but it should do until he could sync to Nemesis or seek out professional help.

Laserbeak pinged him with compassion. He had no need for compassion, not anymore.

And as if to prove that he was functional indeed, he went on on his planned cause of actions and informed the humans of the impeding freedom. He didn't expect the reaction he was witnessing now.

Humans were fascinating creatures indeed - quite predictable in danger situations, semi-smart in an amusing way, but once you think you get a hang of their reactions, you get... this.

They were shouting. Again. He listened in, trying to understand why they weren't happy. "Query: source of perceived distress?"

He reviewed his short message to them - autobots were contacting human authorities to provide the hostages safe return to human inhabitance area. After their safe passage was secured the Decepticons would be provided transportation to Cybertron. According to Ratchet's estimation, it should take no more than several earthly hours and Soundwave saw no reason to doubt the autobot's assessment. After all, autobot expertise in dealing with humans was far superior to his own. He failed to understand the reason for them to show this level of anxiety.

Words like "big brother", "cops", "silenced" puzzled him.

It was Lindsay who finally turned to him, raising her voice to an unpleasant shrill.

"Would it hurt you to simply OPEN THE FUCKUNG DOORS?! Like you promised?!What have we ever done to you?! Why do you hate us so much?! Haven't we done everything you wanted? Liar!"

She made no sense. Chad pulled her back, whispering to her ear, clearly concerned about her wellbeing and Soundwave's reaction to her words.

"Autobots experience in dealing with humans: extensive. This protocol: insisted upon by the autobots. Query: objections?" - Soundwave tried to reason, ignoring an amused ping from Laserbeak who obviously enjoyed this unexpected outburst.

"You don't understand", Jimmy stated grimly. "How long is this "extensive experience" your allies had with human authorities?"

"Autobots: not allies", Soundwave corrected automatically, before answering "Autobots alliance with humans: four stellar cycles ... earthly years... as an established fact. Assumption: existed longer".

"Four years and no one found out about your presence? Your kind is not that easy to overlook. This ship here - it crashed here YEARS ago and no one ever noticed it? The government is covering tracks of aliens for DECADES! You think they will let us simply return to our lives now that we know?!"

"Look", - Beth interjected, - "we get it, you have your hands full with your war and your leader's death and whatnot (Soundwave tensed at her words), you don't understand what this means to us. This here is CONTACT, it is proof that we are not alone out there, that we can reach across the Universe and find someone there... someone intelligent... "

"...and willing to lock us up in cages" - Austin murmured, but Beth paid no attention.

"It's a huge step for humanity. A game changer. And now it turns out the Government had known for a long time. And they have lied to the rest of us. During all the years there must have been people who found out of your kind's existence, there must have been witnesses. But no one spoke up. Why didn't they speak up? What happened to them? What do you think happens to us once feds show up here?"

Soundwave processed it. It never occurred to him before to question how autobots maintained low profile while working with humans, and he wasn't sure it was his business to question it now. However, he could relate to having a government that lied to its people.  
"Deactivation: anticipated?"

Him voicing it like that caused them to flinch. Jimmy rubbed at his neck and murmured: "well... don't think they'd steep to that level... they'll probably threaten us to keep our mouths shut or they kill our families... or put us into mental institutions... Uncle Sam has come to length to keep it all down " he raised his voice "Can you blame us for not wanting to find out firsthand?!"

"Call it off and just let us go. Please?" - Beth was touching his plating again.

He could admit humans were cute in their own way. Laserbeak pinged him skeptically.  
All this was providing a perfect distraction for his prediction calculations to run in the background unhindered. A rush of capacity to his conscious thinking indicated that those were now complete. The decision was made.

"Impossible. Safety of the hostages must be ensured before the space bridge is granted. Soundwave: willing to find a mutually agreeable solution".  
He rose to his peds and bent down again offering his hand to humans: "Your presence: desirable. Your input: possibly required."

Austin shook his head watching Beth readily step on the metal fingers. After a moment's hesitation, Jimmy joined her and the robotic palm surged up carrying them away from the fenced section.

Steve stepped aside from the console, letting his superior approach it, and stared at the two humans on the officer's palm. He rarely had chance to see the ingenious life form up this close. Beth waved her hand at him. He twitched, unsure if and how he should respond.

Soundwave sent him a data burst with orders, and the eradicon moved away, pausing to cast a curious glance over his shoulder at the tiny figures on the communications console. At least, Beth preferred to label this glance as curious.

She didn't know what had changed, but they were undoubtedly making progress in their communication with these creatures. Eager to secure the foothold they now seemed to posess with Soundwave's good graces, she adressed him as he was clicking to call his adversaries: "We would have helped you even if you hand't lied".

She wasn't sure if he had heard her for there was no reaction.

A grumpy white and red robot appeared on the screen and Soundwave said, interrupting him right away:

"Humans: in discord with suggested release protocol. Human authorities involvement: undesireable. Query: adjusting the protocol possible?"

Naturally, Ratchet wasn't happy. Steve even stopped assessing their meager power supplies - the task Soundwave gave him, - and walked closer not to miss that inventive swearing. Common cons sweared a lot, but it was rare to come across such a natural talent.


	20. Chapter 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Knockout enters the stage

Knockout paced his quarters on Nemesis. Though he joined the autobots he felt they were keeping him in the dark. He couldn't fully blame them for that - they wouldn't have survived this long had they been foolish enough to trust any con who would say they wanted to switch sides. Still, with Megatron dead and the ship taken by the bots, joining them was the most beneficial course of actions. He liked to think that they needed him at least as much as he had to rely on their mercy. He would even be true to them as long as he thought them to be the winning side. However, he was careful not to say or do anything that he wouldn't be able to explain if the tables got turned again. And sometimes, feeling Bumblebee's studying gaze upon himself, he wondered if the bots were aware of it too.  
But Bumblebee's - and occasionally Arcee's or Smokescreens- gazes were not the only ones he felt on his back. And that was one more reason to thread carefully - for this other gaze he knew all too well. It was the kind of a gaze that can make you shiver with primal, uncontrolable fear, and haunt your recharge time. It was a promise-gaze, a warning gaze - the "I C U" gaze that an all-too-confident cat would grant a lazy mouse.

Knockout liked to think that him feeling this acute attention was meant as a friendly warning not to get too deep into things too autobotish. It should, he mused, have inspired hope that decepticons would not remain in their current sorry state for long. It should have. It didn't.

The medic didn't know if the autobots were aware of Ravage's presence onboard, he didn't warn them and didn't even hint at it. There would be no way he managed to explain exposing Ravage if the tables got turned. So between Ravage's silent and menacing stalking and autobots obvious distrust no wonder he preferred to hide away in his quarters as much as possible when he wasn't in the med bay. He didn't need another reminder of how low he had fallen - the human girl dared to punch him in the faceplate the other day and the autobots just laughed! Disgusting fleshy creatures, humans. Did she really think the Apex Armor gave her the right?!..... it did give her the opportuninty though. Knockout was sulking. If he believed for a second he could manage on his own out in the open, he'd flee. But there was Predaking, lashing out at anyone he saw, and as he was patching up yet another victim of the beast's rage, Knockout steeled his mind on staying with the Prime and under his protection.

The autobots weren't openly hostile to him, he'd grant them that. They just weren't friendly. And though he could handle a bit of picking and preaching - he had endured insecticons onboard for quite some time, and the autobots weren't half as rude and annoying in their picking. He just preferred not to endure when he had a chance.

That's why he only learned of the new prisoner when they called him to tend to Smokescreens armor tears and dents.

Knockout nearly missed a step when turning a corner he came face to face with Starscream. He covered it up promptly, but still, he was sure both Bee, escorting the prisoner, and his invisible technimal stalker saw it. Slag.  
Starscream sneered at him - "traitor!", seeker's wings twitched, but stasis locks prevented them from rising menacingly on Starscream's back. 

"You dare calling me that after you took all the escape pods and ran?!" - the red vehicon made his best to sound annoyed.

"Shut up, Starscream" Bee interjected and nudged him on. As the jet was already walking past the medic, hissing half-formed threats to his escort, he suddenly winked at the red doctor as Knockout stepped aside to let them pass. On the way to medbay Knockout's optics slowly widened as he processed it. Whatever bots were thinking, Starscream was exactly where he needed to be. He had a plan.

Knockout shrugged mentally, entering the medbay. Not his problem. If Starscream succeeds, he could capitalize on not giving him out, if not - well, he didn't _know_ anything, did he?

\- What happened to you, then? - he asked Smokescreen, who, despite the drastic change in their positions, still squirmed and shivered under his touch, providing a small degree of satisfaction.

\- Starscream - the young elite guard answered, watching Knockout's hands closely, - sneaked into the dock to steal some equipment. Nasty claws he got.

Knockout nodded absentmindedly, concentrating on the task at hand. He was more than sure that whatever Starscream had planned, it wouldn't be stealing equipment. Knockout hummed underbreath, solding a loose wire to it's place. The red doctor would wait for a suitable moment and seize his chance. He'll land on his pedes. This way or the other. He always did.


	21. Chapter 21

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Starscream makes his move and Ultra Magnus... is no Optimus Prime, obviously

"Optimus" - Ultra Magnus spoke up finally breaking a capital stretch of silence that set after Optimus closed the communication to Earth and released the spacebridge, - "Is it wise to trust Soundwave's word?"  
"... and a footage" - Optimus reminded calmly, still staring onto the main display - or rather throught it.  
"... and a footage we know he can expertly fake?"  
"That was no fake, Ultra Magnus. That was Unicron. I have seen him before. I have fought him before."  
Ultra Magnus was not so easily discouraged.  
"What if it's some kind of decepticon trick, what if there's a plot behind this..?" - he trailed of hearing his superior give out a short unamused chuckle, - "There undoubtedly is a plot behind this", - the Prime answered, finally turning to his first lieutenant, - "but with Unicron active and heading here we may not have a choice. I need to seek counsel. Carry on from here."

"Whose counsel, sir?"

"Vector Sigma. If it is indeed Unicron we face, I need to be prepaired."

"With all due respect sir, it's not a journey you should take alone. Predaking and cons are still out there"

"I will not be alone. Arcee and Bulkhead will come with me. Bridge us to Kaon."

***

As Optimus and co left and the bridge closed behind them, Ultra Magnus shook his head disapprovingly. Trusting a con! No doubt they were planning something.

He doubled external surveillance and brought captive decepticon workers back to Nemesis brig. Just in case.

Starscream didn't catch the bots off-guard. As soon as the seaker sneaked within shooting distance he was observed. They let him get into the cargo bay before blocking the doors and jumping the unsuspecting intruder. Surprisingly, the con had put up quite a fight.

It took Smokescreen', Bumblebee's and Wheeljack's combined effort to subdue the decepticon air commander. Killing him would have been easier.   
Ultra Magnus tried once again to contact the Prime, but he was still out of range. That was not surprising - Vector Sigma had always been isolated from the outside world.

Ultra Magnus flexed his claw a few times - a bad habit he took lately and went to interrogate the sneaky prisoner....

The Seeker was held separately from other decepticon fliers, though it also meant he was held in a small storage room with reinforced doors rather than in an actual brig - the decepticon ship had surprisingly few brig cells. Of course, the storage room could not contain the con for long, hence the stasis cuffs were still on and Bumblebee was standing guard outside the doors. Young warrior spotted a few armor tears of his own, but nothing that would require immediate medical treatment.

As Prime's second in command approached the post, he and the ex-scout exchanged a few gestures, reluctant to alert the prisoner of the upcoming visit. 

"How is he?" - Ultra Magnus asked with some effort - the claw was still troubling him.

"Was cursing a while back. Silent now" - Bee opened the door and took aim at the prisoner, who stood with his back turned to the entrance, chained wings up in an unnatural position, obviously to lessen the discomfort from the stasis cuffs. Starscream did not turn.

Ultra Magnus stepped in.

"Is this how you conduct your peace offering, Optimus?" - the Seeker screeched.

"No. But you know the surrender protocol perfectly well, Starscream. It does not include infiltrating our base".

Starscream turned abruptly, optics ablaze, and hissed with open malice:

"Kneel within shooting range, hands above the head and wait for mercy?! Is that how you imagine me, Ultra Magnus?!"

"What were you looking for?" - the autobot asked, choosing not to answer the verbal attack.

Starscream seemed to deflate a bit and leaned his cuffed wings on the wall. He brought his cuffed hands up and spent a few moments examining his long talons (or rather stains of Smokescreens energon on them).

"What if I told you I wanted to check upon my seekers and make sure you treat them right before I consider accepting your generous offer?" - crimson optics glanced up shortly before returning to examining enegron stains. Ultra Magnus stood out of reach and seemed content to remain there. And Bumblebee was still aiming at Starscream's spark, and however Starscream tried to ignore it, it was getting on his nerves.

"I would call you a lier".

"Then I won't tell you that. Where is Optimus? Why is it he sent a cripple instead of himself?" - that was a weak barb, but Starscream still saw it score before Ultra Magnus schooled his features back to their impassive state.

"Maybe you are not important enough" - the autobot answered.

Starscream huffed and turned his back to him again.  
"Don't waste my time. I will speak to the Prime only," - somehow he made it sound like he was the one agreeing to an audience rather than a prisoner being interrogated.

There were ways to push the seeker, ways to make him speak. However, they would be counter-productive if this really was the beginning of the surrender negotiations. Ultra Magnus sincerely doubted that. There were chances that Starscream was provoking him for prolonged and hard-core interrogation, planting a distraction for other con forces.

"Very well" - the commander said, and was pleased to see an astonished glance in response, - "you may wait here".

"Wait! I want to see my fliers", - Starscream called to his retreating back, but Ultra Magnus only shook his helm.

As the autobot commander was already out, Wheeljack alerted him over the comm that they had aerial incoming. The ship rattled.

"Activate all shields!" - Ultra Magnus barked and ran to the bridge. So this was it. The cons lured Optimus away and attacked. He knew it!  
Bee followed him without waiting for an order. It's not like Starscream was going anywhere, right?

As soon their footsteps faded away, Starscream's scowl turned into a loopsided grin. Of course, it would have been easier if the bots put him into the brig with his eradicons, but he was prepared for the solitary confinement as well. The seeker strained his transformation joints and managed to pulled his thrusters through the cuffed hands, bringing his hands to his back. Another painful effort enabled him to rotate his arms at the elbows, reaching for the upper part of his wings where they attached. Arching back into his own touch in a nearly impossible curve, Starscream managed to reach the underside ofhis left wing where a small secret compartment was hidden. A little fiddling and the plates split revealing a digital lockpick the seeker hid there specifically for this case. Ultra Magnus may think Starscream was planting disturbance for a font-on attack, but in fact it was the other way around - the front attack was nothing but a decoy for the real deal.

In a click he was free of cuffs and couldn't contain a relieved sigh, spreading nearly numb wings.

Now... the door.

As he reached the door, however, he found the lock disengaged and offline. Knockout. A timely assistance. That was so much better than breaking out.  
Starscream looked out into the corridor and was pleased to see the surveilance cams were all retracted into the ceiling. He all but pranced out.  
Then, as an afterthought, he locked the door behind him.


	22. 22

The trip to Vector Sigma had been uneventful sofar. Bridged to one of the regular bridging spots of Kaon, Optimus and his companions had to navigate through a maze of rebuilt streets to a hidden entry point to lower levels. Arcee had been here before, accompanying her human partner, but the place looked completely different now. Where once only desolated ruins and lots of debris indicated this had been one of the biggest Cybertron's city-states, now the city bloomed in all the shininess and former glory. Well, except for war fortifications, plasma canons, Darkmount's oppressing presence (moreso in current bright illumination) and, apparently, Smelter Pits. What else could warm the air this much and smell this dangerous?

Optimus behind her sighed. Yes, she shared the feeling. This was still a long way from being their home.

"Optimus, I think I saw something in my rear mirror" - Bulkhead sounded over short waves.

Arcee skipped right and turned around, scanning the rearguard while both heavier vehicles passed beside her without slowing.

"I don't see anything. Sure about it, Bulk?"

"It was a flicker of light, dunno what it was"

"We take next right and round the block. Arcee, stay watch if anything follows us" - and Optimus turned right without further conversation.

A sleek two-wheeler edged into a small shadowy alchove and stood guard. Soon, her teammates engines were no longer heard. Did Bulkhead really see anything?  
She was about to voice her doubts over the commlink when something glistened in the sky above. Zooming in as much as her optics could she distinguished a winged silhoette that hovered mid-air. "Predaking!" - Arcee wasn't sure if she actually said it into the commlink, but apparently she did.

After a click or so of battle-ready apprehension, it became clear that the beast was not aware of their presence. The winged figure hovered mid-air, then dived down out of sight only to emerge a few moments later followed by a smaller but similarly shaped figure. "Didn't know there were more of them" - Arcee said, watching the beasts soar and turn and set a broad downward spiral. Barely out of sight, the creatures then gained altitude, emerging again in a nearly upward flight that seemed not possible for their wings.

"Arcee. Report"

"They don't see us. They don't follow us. They seem busy doing... whatever this is. Do you want to engage?"

"No. It is best we avoid being discovered for now. Rendez-vous on Vecator Sigma, and Arcee - be carefull"

"Roger that"

Optimus smiled internally at her human-like wording. Earth stuck to all of them in small things like that and he wasn't sure it was a bad thing. Arcee will watch the rear and then catch up when it's clear they passed the area unnoticed. Despite the smile, he felt troubled. One Predaking was almost too much to handle, but more of them? How? Or should he rather ask "who"?

"Ultra Magnus, we spotted more predacons... Ultra Magnus? Come in!" - he tried every other team member one by one and there was nothing but static although it still had been at least a two-breem drive from the entrance to the sacred zone of Vector Sigma. They were well within a maze of Kaon streets now, but not close enough to the ancient distortion fireld. Short waves still carried across - a fact Optimus established getting acknowledged responses from both his team mates. An anomally? Or the Unmaker? Back on Earth communications were the first to collapse when Unicron had been rising. Optimus sped up as much as these narrow streets and sharp turns allowed him. Behind him, Bulkhead's engine roared up.

Arcee spent few more clicks watching predacons maneuver mid-air. The bulky figure of their probably fiercest enemy yet moved with his usual deadly grace and she watched with appreciation now that this grace wasn't trying to dismember them. The other predacon, though, seemed not as skilled. What this one did looked more like stumbling. If you could stumble while flying. Arcee carefully moved out of the shadows that concealed her lithe frame, transformed and sped away, never losing sight of the beasts in her rear mirror.  
Just as she was about to turn and be out of their sight completely, a third figure - even more sloppy that the second one, - joined them in the air. Almost like a sparkling. Suddenly Arcee understood what this was. Predaking was teaching predacon younglings to fly.   
Still unsure if she was touched or repulsed, the two-wheeler drove into the underground passage to Vector Sigma and soon caught up with the Prime at the very entrance to the sacred place. Apart from obvious lack of scraplets, this place changed little since the time she had been here with Jack.

Optimus slid aside his chest plates and took out the keycard. "Wait for me" - he said, stepping into the opening passage, - "we may need to fight our way back".

The passage closed beghind him and then there was only Vector Sigma.

***  
Six eradicons - all that was left of Starscream's Armada that once counted thirty nine fliers, perked up when the floor beneath their peds trembled. The ship swayed up abruptly, nearly causing them to lose their balance. Something was happening outside the brig zone. In the brig zone there was only soft humming of their engines, occasional cackling of the energy bars that locked them in and served as a light source at the same time. Sometimes muffled footsteps could be heard from the neighboring cell where genericons resided. At first, teh cons tried to communicate through knocks, but genericons stopped answering a while back. They chose to collaborate with their captives.   
Lord Megatron was dead. Starscream was AWOL. What was there for them? Sit tight and wait for rust to claim them? Even doctor Knockout sumbitted to the fate.

Genericons. Vehicons. They had always been weak. True seekers never surrender! Yet, waiting for rescue was demeaning. What hope did they have?

An unexpected sound made them all turn to it. The door slid aside revealing a slender frame. Could it even be? The figure in the doorway pranced in, wings tilted up high and head proud. Energy bars cast greenish light on Starscream's face, removing all lingering doubt.

"COMMANDER STARSCREAM!" - they shouted in unison.

Starscream smiled and unlocked their cage.   
"Hurry up" - he said, - "time to take back what's ours"

He always loved when his troops cheered for him.


	23. 23

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Knockout has his doubts, Starscream has his high moment, Ultra Magnus is still no Optimus Prime. Two more factors enter the picture of which no one is aware yet.
> 
> The scales of fate are madly swinging.

Nemesis's floor shuddered under his peds and the lights blinked for a few clicks - this had never happened on the decepticon war flagship before. Knockout cursed, looking at a small pool of stabilizing liquid splashed on his medical table. What the crap was happening?! If autobots let that crazy wrecker to the control console, Knockout won't hold back on them! The red doctor raised his hand to activate his newly adopted autobot commlink manually. He had built it in himself, eager to show his new devotion, but was not so keen to fully integrate it yet. What would a full integration accomplish? It would be painful to get rid of it should the tables turn. So now he touched the sensor conveniently concealed beneath his audio receptor and said:  
\- Yoy.. command center? What's the commotion?! What's going on?  
There was nothing but static. Knockout suddenly remembered Starscream's wink and nearly jumped with sudden excitement. This should be it! He ran out into the corridor with a mixture of awe and delight.

\- There goes our brave doctor, - Starcream all but purred walking toward him. One glance at the six determined seekers trailing behind him confirmed Knockouts initial assessment. This definitely was it.

\- I knew you'd get out - Knockout said, flashing the grey seeker a smile.

Starscream huffed:  
\- Of course I would anyway. But still, your timely assist is appreciated. Now, to the vault if you please.

Knockout bit his glossa not to let his surprise out. So, someone helped the Seeker? The medic knew perfectly well who that might be. He hid his surprise and joined the group on their way to the weapons and freedom.   
Soon, blasts and shots were heard ahead. Starscream paused and gestured for his small crew to gather close:  
\- We gain control of the ship and open the latches for the rest of my armada, - the seekers twitched exitedly at these words. - The three of you - as soon as the command center is ours you're on navigation duty. And try not to harm my ship! - with that he primed his arm blasters and sprinted forward.

Between all communications and shields suddenly down, two full eradicon squads attacking the ship and Starscream with his inside team behind them, it wasn't long before the remaining autobots were outpositioned and trapped on the lower deck.

Knockout trailed along and still couldn't decide if he should knock Starscream out or help him get rid of the autobots. The odds seemed to be in decepticon favor now, but that was only because the Prime and two of his hitters were absent. Knockout suspected, the scales of fate would have a back swing as soon as the Prime returned. Also, he couldn't help but feel sympathetic toward the autobots, who now retreated a corridor after a corridor - the ship itself, it seemed, rebelled against them - every door was locked now, leaving them only the corridors and nowhere to hide. Running behind Starscream, Knockout silently marveled how the air commander pulled it through - the operation was organised flawlessly. Poor autobots, all in all, they did treat him well, much better that any autobot prisoner would be treated, had the situation been reverse. He felt sorry for them. A little.

\- Surrender. - Starscream screeched, when it came to a stand still: Wheeljack, Bumblebee, Smokescreen and Ultra Magnus (the latter two injured) against eighteen eradicons (minus the ones shot down by Wheeljack and Bee and the ones sent to the bridge), Starscream and one unhappy looking Knockout.

\- Wreckers don't surrender - Wheeljack murmured, measuring the distance between himself and the aerial commander. Now would be a time to throw a grenade except he had none left.

\- Is that so? Fine. Don't surrender. In fact, I'm keen to let you go. Jump, if you please - Starscream said, pointing to transporter dock, - It's not that high.

Ultra Magnus looked down the docking hole. It wasn't too big a jump indeed - the ship was hovering close to the surface.  
\- Why are you letting us go? I see no logic.

Starscream laughed softly, as if the word logic itself amused him. His missile, aiming at Ultra Magnus's spark did not waver though.

\- Tell Optimus I traded my ship for your pathetic lives. Consider it my peace offering. Now begone!

Then everything happened in an instant - Wheeljack surged forward, eradicons opened fire, Starscream fired both his missiles, the explosion deafening in the confined space. Part of transporter dock deck split apart, the ship shuddered again, it's lights switching to emergency red-and-yellow blinking. In a viscous gun fight that followed Bee managed to take down at least three seekers, while maneuvering heavily limping Smokescreen out of the harm's way. Wheeljack was on Starscream, and the seeker was screaming in rage as he had to back down under the wrecker's assault. 

Suddenly the crack on the floor broadened as if Nemesis himself tried to get rid of the mayhem by dropping them all off the ship. The severed piece of the deck creaked and fell off.   
Knockout caught a glimpse of something red flashing behind the ventilation crate and heard the splashing roar of liquid.

Acting fast, the medic shocked the unsuspecting wrecker with his electric prod and as Wheeljack stumbled, momentarily disoriented, Knockout and Starscream shared a glance and kicked him back toward the opening on the floor.

\- Armada! Rise up! - and Starscream transformed just on time before the purplish cleaner wave washed the autobots and his less fortunate subordinates off the deck and out of the ship. Knockout barely managed to jump on the hovering Seeker in time not to be flushed down the hole himself.

As soon as the deck closed again - as much as it could with a large piece of it missing, - Starscream shook the medic off and landed on his peds.

\- You - he pointed at the nearest eradicons, - keep an eye on the autobots, make sure they don't try to sneak back. 

\- Command center? Bring us up. And give me damage report.

When no response came over the commlink, Starscream cursed, made a gesture for his troops to follow and strode toward the bridge.

Knockout cast a last glance at the hole in the deck and followed him.


	24. 24

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Starscream "grab the ship and run" plan turns out difficult to fulfill, and autobots show some mercy (or cruelty, depending on your point of view). Ultra Magnus may not be Optimus Prime, but Wheeljack is every ounce Wheeljack.  
> However, they are not in the clear...

\- How did you manage to silence the comms? - Knockout marveled trailing beside the newly proven leader of the Deceptions as they walked hastily toward the command center. - And the flush? A brilliant stroke.

Starscream cast him a sidelong glance.

\- Not my doing - he reluctantly admitted.

\- Really? But... - suddenly it dawned on the medic whose doing it may have been. - So what's the plan anyway?

\- Full sails on and get the frag as far from here as possible. - came a quick reply.

\- But... we've got the ship, why run?

That stopped Starscream dead in his tracks. The seeker turned to the confused AstonMartin:

\- Your autobot teammates didn't share much with you, did they? Any reason why I should? - Starscream drawled out and looked at the bright medic a bit more intently:

\- ... Ah... you want to claim your former position by my side, am I right?

\- I did help you get the ship - Knockout spread his hands palms up as if saying :"you can't argue with that".

Starscream gave him a once over and resumed walking, other eradicons trailing behind at a respectful distance.

\- I suppose I don't have much choice. However, if there's one thing I learned from Lord Megatron, may he be one with the Allspark, is that you should never trust your Second. My plans are better kept mine only .

Knockout shrugged and sped up to fall in step with him:

\- Well... if we're not sharing, I'll keep my info to myself as well... Since you're certain it cannot affect whatever you have planned...

That earned him a malicious scowl:

\- If you wanna be my second, prove me you're worth it.

Knockout thought this over.

\- Do I want to be your Second? That actually depends. Is it "be my Second in the war" or "be my Second on a deep space journey" or maybe "be my Second in my graceless stampede".

Starscream grinned: "Be my Second in watching all my enemies perish from a safe distance?"

They reached the bridge and Starscream ordered to gain altitude and hover higher to assess the damage.

While genericons worked on patching up the shields and the lower deck, Knockout watched Starscream try to revive the communications array. In few breems the medic snapped out of his thoughts and offered his help. Between the two of them they managed to restart and recalibrate the array. There still was only static.

The damage report came in and it was worse than expected. Navigation was glitching, something caused shortages along internal fluids circulation - which eventually resulted in a timely emergency cleaner flush, surveillance was down and the stabilizers on the left side appeared to be malfunctioning. Energy lever were spiking and subsiding at random - there was nothing that could cause it.

\- Well? Why are you still here and not out there fixing it?!

Embarrassed muffling was all Starscream got in response. The eradicons lacked expertise - they could fix things if they where told where and how to fix. The grey jet turned to Knockout.

\- Don't look at me, - the medic said, - My file says "medical", not "engineer" not to mention "communications". Soundwave always tended to the systems himself.

\- Never thought I would miss him! He'd better be fixing it than nursing the foolish idea that Prime can beat Unicron! - Starscream hit the nearest console with his fist. Watching him have one of his hissy fits was pleasant for a change. So soothing. An island of normality in the sea of crazy.

\- Shockwave, too...Of all his stupid plans... Knockout, it had taken Prime _and Megatron_ combined effort to put Unicron to hybernation last time, and it was barely enough! And they failed eventually. And now, without Megatron, the fools stand no chance!

He was looking at the medic with desperation as though it was vital for him to hear that there was no chance indeed and fleeing was right. Knockout was all up for fleeing, personally. Call it a tactical retreat and you may even feel good about it. It's just...

\- Wait... Soundwave? Alive?

\- Yes! Yes. He got in touch with Prime from Earth... what are you smiling at?

\- There's one technimal on board who will be really glad to hear that.

Starscream looked at him and his faceplate slowly morphed into a grin.

\- Get the space bridge boot up. I have the coordinates.

When everything was set and ready, Knockout stole a glance on the control console:

\- Isn't that the Harbinger?

\- Indeed.   
And the grey seeker pressed the button.

***

Bumblebee was the first to perk up from a puddle of purplish cleaner. He looked around - his teammates and foes popped out of the shallow pool like islands in the seas back on Earth.

The ex-scout rose to his peds and glanced at the decepticon warship. It had probably gained some altitude - if they really had fallen from that height there was no way he got off with as little as a few dents. Not too far from him, Wheeljack stirred.

Bee turned to check on Smokescreen - out of them four, the youngster was in the worst condition. Cons could have easily finished them off while they were lying here offline. They didn't for some reason and Bee felt he shouldn't question their luck before they are in the clear.

Smokescreen's right leg stuck out at an unnatural angle. The young autobot moaned softly - he was coming online responding to the pain alerts. Bumblebee looked around. He wasn't a medic, but he was sure Smokescreen's hip joint didn't look normal. Behind him, Wheeljack coughed liquid out of his vents.

\- Well? You gonna fix him or meditate on him, Bee?

\- I don't know how - Bumblebee confessed.

\- Move aside, then... - Wheeljack knelt beside and started feeling out the joint, - You don't gotta be a medic to recognize a twisted joint. Gotta sort it out fast before en circulation disrupts. Wakey-wakey, little rookie.

Smokescreen's optics onlined and he frowned up at the wrecker:  
\- Hey what's with the groping?! Cut it out!

\- Good. Now you hold'em an' I pull, - the wrecker said to Bumblebee and winked at Smokescreen, - in your dreams, rookie. Three... two... one!

A loud snap accompanied by a loud cry of pain brought the rest of fallen bots and cons online.

\- You could have warned me! - Smokescreen protested.

\- So what's the plan, chief? - Wheeljack turned to Ultra Magnus as the officer rose to his peds.

\- We need to regroup with Optimus, soldier, cons probably attacked them too - came an immediate reply.

Wheeljack jumped to his peds and offered Smokescreen a hand:

\- Good thing I fixed the JackHammer then, sir. It's a couple of blocks from here. We needa fuel, but otherwise... - a rattling sound from behind his back got autobots attention.

Eradicons were slow to recover and that worked against them - before they regained their balance and really looked around, they were in the crossfires of four pissed off autobots. Outnumbered.

The wingleader cast a quick glance up to the ship, still hovering above - so close! So out of reach! - and slowly raised his arms above his head. His wing followed his example. They should drag this out long enough to be rescued.

\- We surrender! Don't kill us.

\- That is not our intention, - Ultra Magnus said before pulling a trigger. Killing the seekers meant Nemesis wouldn't have to slow down to pick them up. But a few more or less serious injuries would maybe win autobots some time.

\- Nothing personal, - Bee said, crouching down beside the wingleader, who hissed static and ineffectively tried to get up. His peds gave out - it's hard to maintain your balance with two holes for knee joints. The peds kept snapping under him and he kept falling back, - it's just not your day.

Soon, the autobot vessel sped off toward Kaon, as stealthily and low above the surface as Wheeljack dared to fly it manually because sonars and radars were glitchy. Ultra Magnus tried to get through to Optimus every breem, to no avail so far. Otherwise, they did not speak.

They were already over the Mithric sea when Smokescreen, who was sulking on rearguard monitor duty, suddenly perked up, alert:

\- The slag?! We are being followed.


	25. Humans out.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When you don't expect anything good from the government... it's a bit sad, actually. On the other hand, who said that aliens can't be allies?

They were out of food. They only got one bottle of water left for five people. But that was all right, because they were going to be released soon, right? Right?!  
The wait has gotten on all their nerves and the last couple of hours were the worst. It had taken some effort to convince the grumpy autobot, and while Beth and Jimmy they were at it with Soundwave silently backing them up, the rest of the gang packed up their makeshift camp. In fact, they even cleaned the spot. Humans were all set to go, see? Just get them out of this damned cage already!  
Jim cast one glace over there and focused on a typical nerd kid that the autobot ushered forward to parlay on his behalf. Raf, was it?  
— Look, kid, I'm glad it worked out for you fine and all, but we'd rather not test our luck. I don't want to spend the life looking over my shoulder, - Jimmy said with just enough impatience to convey it without actually being rude, - I want my life returned to normal, thank you very much.  
— You don't understand. They are decepticons! You cannot trust a decepticon! Don't you know what they've done? They destroyed Jasper, my home town? and tried to conquer the entire planet! They are not on your side.  
— Yeah, well. So you say. Where do you live now? On some top secret base, I reckon?  
Raf looked a little embarrassed. He wasn't living at the base per se, but he was closely observed and spent nearly all his time there - all the time he wasn't at school or at the refugee settlement his family now lived in. Not that he objected. However, his college perspectives looked rather dim now. It wasn't spoken about, but it was somehow taken for granted that he's to stay with Ratchet in this project. And that's what he wanted, too. Best option, right?  
Jimmy took his silence for confirmation:  
— Well, kid, it's your life and all, but we'd rather bail while we still can. Good luck, - and he turned to look up to Soundwave, - cut him off.  
Soundwave seemed to be a bit startled and Raf used a moment's hesitation to type a few cybertronian glyphs before the decepticon broke the connection.  
— What was that? - Beth pointed at the glyphs frozen on the screen.

Soundwave seemed amused:  
— Death threat: issued by human Raf. Acting condition: humans in question harmed in any way.

— And you're not… I dunno… mad? angered? irritated?

— Negative. Situation: amusing, however: human Raf proven to be capable of things beyond...

He might have elaborated on that more, given his unusual predisposition to small talk at the moment, but a greenish whirl of a spacebridge opening in the middle of the command room immediately took their total attention.

A figure stepping through wasn't like the robots already present - it was leaner and taller than the troopers and not as angular as Soundwave and moved with grace best described as deadly.  
As he emerged from the green light completely and the humans had a chance to really look at him, they were surprised to see a vaguely humanoid "face" with crimson eyes and mouth (no nose, but why would a robot need one?), and a grin so unmistakably smug they shared a glance. That one, heh? It seemed he wore his smugness around him in sort of a royal mantle, it flowed off him as he sauntered forward.

There was a moment of silence, as he stopped in the center of the room, enjoying their undivided attention.

— Good to see you're back in business, Soundwave. I require your assistance on Nemesis, - he said in a purring voice of someone truly enjoying the sound of their own voice. Lindsay snickered and covered her mouth with her hand, - and thank you for taking care for my troops.

Soundwave seemed unfazed by the display:  
— Transport protocol: agreed upon with the autobots. Preparations require another joor. Decepticon technology: not to be left behind for anyone to use. Again, Starscream, - ouch, burn! The newcomer's smile faded for a split second then returned in full:

— Time is of the essence, Soundwave, and weren't you the one babbling about Unicron? We need to fix Nemesis asap…. or would you rather leave your little cassette to his fate on Cybertron? - Soundwave made a jerky movement at these words, - … Eradicons, march, and take that fuel with you - and he pointed at the spacebridge still open in the middle of the room.

All the other robots in the room obeyed and moved to the vortex.

— Query: Ravage safe?

— As far as I know, - Starscream nodded grandly, as if it was his sole achievement that Soundwave's symbiont was safe, - he hid on the ship throughout the mess. Bots never found him, - and he turned to walk to the vortex as well, - well, you coming or what? And leave your new pets here, will you?

Soundwave contemplated this for a moment:

— Starscream: requires my assistance. Starscream: can wait for a few breems more.

With that, he moved to the cage, where humans were waving and calling for his attention, put Beth and Jimmy back in, folded at his knees and said, easily cutting over their voices  
— A favor: is required. This, - he took out a small device with a sole button (small by his standards, but the button itself was a size of a normal dinner plate) and handed it to them. Chad took it, and grunted - it weighted about ten pounds.  
— this activates self-destruct. Humans: will use their vehicle to drive to the highway. Once there: safe distance to blow the ship up. This: vital. Decepticon technology: not safe for lesser developed races.

He seemed to look at all of them at once and each of them in particular.

— Your word: required.

There were several hasty nods, and Beth voiced it:  
— We will blow the ship. I promise.

Soundwave looked at them for a moment more then rose to his peds  
— Recommendation: get into the vehicle - Oh, were they quick to obey!

Soundwave took the van and put it carefully outside the cage. Then he turned to the console and opened all doors on the way out. Jimmy started the car and Beth looked out of the passenger window to cry: "Good luck!" before they sped off.

Starscream snorted:  
— I leave you for a few decacycles and you start a zoo.

Soundwave curtly nodded for him to lead the way and followed Starscream through the spacebridge.

The route to the crash site wasn't really suited for a van like Jimmy's. There was a clearing around the ship, but it wasn't big and after that it was just forest. As much as Jimmy wanted to put metal to the pedal, he had to slow down, and soon they were crawling more than riding, leaves and twigs scratching the car.

— Well… this at least explains, why he couldn't blow the ship himself, - Austin muttered under breath, as the van bumped into yet another bush. There was a loud "thud" and then steam streamed from under the van's hood.

Jimmy swore.  
— What? What is it? — he climbed out and opened the hood, trying to see through the steam and brushing it aside with his hands.

It turned out, the old van's radiator could only take this many hits and the said van couldn't hop around the wilderness much without the said radiator. They should have been upset but the sheer normality of the situation in contrast to anything that had happened during last two days made them laugh. And if there had been a bit of hysteria in that laugh they shared, no wonder, right?  
— You know what? - Jimmy said, when he wiped the laughter tears off, - I'm not even upset about it. I mean, it's a small price to pay, considering… - and he waved his hand as of to encompass all the things they should consider.

— I vote we all contribute to your new crappy old van, Jimmy - Austin offered, and everyone agreed.  
Meanwhile, they still had half a way to hike. Uphill. They packed light, drank their last water and were already set to go, when Beth asked:

— What about the detonator, guys? - and it broke the unspoken agreement not to notice the self-destruct button, left on the back seat as if forgotten.

— Well, what about it? We don't owe him anything, Beth. He kidnapped us for fuck's sake! - Chad said.  
— But I gave my word.

An argument broke out, half-hearted and weary and ended abruptly when Beth took the button into her backpack, throwing out all her other stuff.

— You're unreasonable, - Austin commented, but "STFU" was all it earned him.

Two hours later, there had been an explosion.


End file.
